Early Life and Career
Mackiernan was born in Mexico City, Mexico, to an adventurous father who had been a whaler and explorer. As a child, the young Mackiernan learned English, Spanish, French, and German. He was the oldest of five brothers: Duncan, Angus, Malcolm, and Stuart. His family later moved to Stoughton, Massachusetts, where he worked at his father's filling station business and he and his brothers became amateur radio operators. Mackiernan spent one year at MIT as a physics major in 1932, then dropped out and became a research assistant at the university. He served as a major in the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II, first as a cryptanalysis officer in 1942 in Washington, DC, then as a meteorological officer in Alaska and from November 1943, until the end of the war in Tiwha (now Ürümqi), the capital of Sinkiang (now Xinjiang) Province. In February 1947, Mackiernan missed the adventure of the war and applied to the State Department for a position as a consular clerk at his former location in China. He was eagerly accepted, and by May he was on his way back. He soon found himself recruited for, and ideally suited to, espionage work.
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