Navy Son of Spy Suspect Accused of Espionage, Seized Aboard Nimitz

The Navy son of a Virginia man accused of spying for the Soviet Union was arrested Wednesday aboard the aircraft carrier Nimitz after evidence implicated him in the alleged espionage activities of his father, John A. Walker Jr.

Navy officials said Seaman Michael Lance Walker, 22, was placed in the brig of the Nimitz on orders of the Naval Investigative Service, which alleged that he had been cooperating with his father, 47, who retired from the Navy as a communications specialist in 1976.

Hours later, the U.S. attorney’s office in Baltimore formally charged the younger Walker with committing espionage and aiding and abetting the commission of espionage. It said a 15-pound box of classified documents was found hidden next to his bunk on the Nimitz, which is docked in Israel.

Complaint About Data

Assistant U.S. Atty. Michael Schatzow said in an affidavit that the younger Walker had complained in a letter to his father that he was becoming overburdened with classified documents.

“What should I do about the increasing amounts of photos I have been acquiring?” he asked in the letter. “At the rate I am going, I will have over 100 pounds of souvenirs. I have run out of space . . . . Would I be asking too much if I were to ask what the status is of my previous photos?”

In another letter introduced in federal court, he told his father that he had been chosen “sailor of the month” and asked: “Do you believe that?”

Walker had been working as a clerk in the ship’s operations department, which handles communications and combat functions of the carrier, Navy officials said.

Money Cited as Motive

FBI agents and Navy investigators are understood to believe that money, rather than ideology, led the elder Walker to spy for the Soviets over a period of perhaps 15 years. Neighbors of Walker in Norfolk, Va., where he ran a private security firm, described him as a quiet, well-dressed divorced man who owned three sailboats and dated a variety of women.

The FBI arrested him early Monday at a motel in suburban Rockville, Md., after trailing him to an apparent “drop site” where they found a shopping bag containing 129 secret Navy documents, including material believed to be from the Nimitz. Authorities said a Soviet national assigned to the Soviet Embassy was seen in the area of the drop site.

Walker, in an apparent reference to his son, left a note in the shopping bag that said the material “is limited, unfortunately, due to his operating schedule . . . . His ship departed in early March.”

Monitors Soviet Ships

According to the Navy, the Nimitz left Norfolk in mid-March and has been visiting the Israeli port of Haifa since Sunday. It makes regular cruises in the Mediterranean and monitors the movements of Soviet vessels.

The elder Walker is being held without bond in Baltimore until evidence against him is presented to a federal grand jury. While serving in the Navy, he held security clearances that enabled him to see codes and other secret material.

Investigators are known to be contacting many of Walker’s private security clients in the Norfolk area to determine the type of work he performed for them. As a registered member of the American Society for Industrial Security, Walker was said to be accomplished in helping firms avoid electronic spying by business competitors.

One firm where he checked the security of corporate briefing rooms and telephones was Newport News Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Co., a leading defense contractor. But company spokesman Jack Schnaedter said Walker “had nothing to do with any classified material.”