Walking into the Original Headquarters Building in Langley feels a bit like entering a cathedral of secrets. It’s quiet. There is a specific kind of stillness there. But the first thing that actually stops people in their tracks isn't a high-tech gadget or a piece of intercepted code. It’s the North Wall.
You’ve probably seen photos of it. It’s a simple slab of Vermont marble, stark white and massive. Carved into that stone are rows of small, five-pointed stars. These are the CIA stars on the wall, and honestly, they are the most sobering sight in the entire American intelligence community. Each one represents an officer who gave their life in service to the country. No names are etched next to them. No dates of birth or death. Just the stars.
It’s heavy.
As of late 2024, there are 140 stars. That number changes, unfortunately. Sometimes it stays the same for years, and then, suddenly, a new one appears. It’s a living monument, which is a haunting thought when you realize what it takes for a new star to be carved.
The Secret History of the Memorial Wall
The wall wasn't there when the building first opened in 1961. It actually came about in 1974. The CIA’s Fine Arts Commission—yeah, that’s a real thing—commissioned Harold Vogel to create it. He carved the first 31 stars by hand. Can you imagine the pressure of that? One slip of the chisel and you’ve defaced a memorial for fallen spies.
Vogel used a pneumatic tool to get the rough shape and then finished them with a hammer and chisel. Each star is exactly two-and-a-quarter inches tall and deep enough to hold a shadow. That’s the trick. The stars aren't painted; they are defined by the absence of stone.
Behind the wall's simplicity is a deep layer of bureaucracy and tragedy. To get a star, a person has to meet very specific criteria. The Honor and Merit Awards Board makes the call. It isn't just "anyone who died while working." It’s specifically for those who died in the line of duty, often in circumstances that were "heroic" or "exemplary."
Why Some Stars Stay Anonymous
This is the part that usually trips people up. If you look below the stars, there’s a black, Moroccan goat-skin book kept in a steel-and-glass case. It’s called the Book of Honor.
📖 Related: Weather Forecast Lockport NY: Why Today’s Snow Isn’t Just Hype
In that book, many stars have names. You’ll see "Johnny Micheal Spann," the first American killed in combat in Afghanistan after 9/11. You’ll see "Barbara Robbins," the first female officer killed in the line of duty, who died when a car bomb hit the embassy in Saigon in 1965.
But then there are the gaps.
A significant portion of the stars are "nameless." In the Book of Honor, these are represented only by a gold leaf star and a blank space. No name. No date. Nothing.
Why? Because their work was so sensitive that even in death, their identity remains a state secret. Their families might know the truth, but the public cannot. Sometimes, revealing the name would burn an ongoing operation or put people still in the field at risk. It’s a strange, lonely kind of immortality. You are remembered by the Agency, but to the rest of the world, you are just a geometric shape on a piece of marble.
The Ritual of the Carving
When a new star is added, it’s not a public event. It’s a private ceremony for the "Agency family." The Director of the CIA usually speaks. They talk about the sacrifice, the mission, and the "silent stars."
There is a guy whose job it is to keep the stars looking uniform. For years, this was the responsibility of various master carvers who had to match Vogel’s original style perfectly. They use a template. They have to ensure the depth is exactly right so that when the light hits the foyer at a certain angle, every star casts the same shadow.
Consistency matters here.
👉 See also: Economics Related News Articles: What the 2026 Headlines Actually Mean for Your Wallet
Notable Names and the Stories Behind Them
While the "black stars" (the anonymous ones) get a lot of the mystery-thriller attention, the names we do know tell a brutal story of American foreign policy over the last 80 years.
- Hugh Francis Redmond: He was an officer captured in China in 1951. He spent nearly 20 years in a Chinese prison before dying there. His star wasn't added until much later, after the facts of his death were finally confirmed.
- The Khost Bombing (2009): Seven stars were added at once after a double agent blew himself up at Forward Operating Base Chapman in Afghanistan. It was one of the darkest days in the Agency's history.
- Rachel Dean: A young support officer who died in a car accident while on duty in Kazakhstan in 2006. Her story reminds people that "line of duty" isn't always a shootout; sometimes it’s just the inherent danger of operating in unstable parts of the world.
The Emotional Weight of the Foyer
The foyer isn't just about the wall. On the opposite side, there’s a statue of Nathan Hale, the Revolutionary War spy who famously regretted having only one life to lose for his country. Between the stars and Hale, you have the Biblical verse from John 8:32: "And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free."
It’s a bit ironic, right? A place built on secrets with a giant inscription about the truth.
But inside the building, the CIA stars on the wall are viewed as the "ultimate truth." They represent the cost of the intelligence that ends up on the President’s desk every morning. For the employees walking past that wall every day to grab a coffee or go to a briefing, those stars are a constant, nagging reminder that the stakes of their job aren't just political or academic. They’re literal.
Declassification and "Coming Home"
One of the most interesting things that happens—and it doesn't happen often—is when a star "comes home."
This is when the CIA decides that the circumstances of an officer's death can finally be made public. When that happens, the name is finally inked into the Book of Honor. It’s a massive deal for the families. For decades, they might have had to tell friends that their loved one died in a "plane crash" or a "hunting accident" without being able to explain the "why."
When the name is added, they finally get public recognition. In 2021, for example, several stars from the "Secret War" in Laos were finally acknowledged. These men had died in the 1960s and 70s, but their families had to wait half a century to see their names in that book.
✨ Don't miss: Why a Man Hits Girl for Bullying Incidents Go Viral and What They Reveal About Our Breaking Point
Myths vs. Reality
People love to speculate about the wall. You’ll hear rumors that there are "hidden" stars or that some stars represent groups of people.
That’s not how it works.
Each star is one person. The Agency is actually quite transparent about the number of stars, even if they aren't transparent about the names. If you go to the CIA's official website or their social media, they will post when the count increases. There’s no secret "underground wall." The one in the lobby is it.
Another misconception is that these are all "spies" in the James Bond sense. In reality, the stars represent a cross-section of the Agency. Some were case officers, sure. But others were analysts, logisticians, or tech specialists. If you are a CIA employee and you die because of your work for the Agency, you are eligible for a star.
What the Stars Teach Us About Intelligence
The wall is a map of American conflict. You can practically see the Cold War, the Vietnam era, the Middle East operations, and the rise of counter-terrorism reflected in the clusters of stars.
It also reflects a shift in how the CIA views itself. In the early days, the Agency was much more secretive about its losses. Today, while still protecting identities, there is a much stronger internal culture of honoring the fallen. The wall has become the heart of the Agency's institutional identity.
Actionable Insights for Researching Agency History
If you’re interested in the stories behind the marble, you don't need a top-secret clearance to find them.
- Check the CIA's Featured Story Archive: Every year around Memorial Day, the CIA usually declassifies the story of one or two officers who have stars on the wall. They provide long-form articles about their lives and missions.
- Visit the Virtual Museum: While the actual CIA headquarters is closed to the public, the CIA website has a virtual tour of the foyer. You can see high-resolution images of the wall and the Book of Honor.
- Read "The Ghost" by Jefferson Morley or "First In" by Gary Schroen: These books provide context on the types of missions that lead to stars on the wall, specifically regarding the high-risk environments of the Cold War and the early days in Afghanistan.
- Monitor the Book of Honor Updates: The CIA Library occasionally publishes updates on how many names remain classified versus how many have been revealed. It's a fascinating way to track how history is slowly being "unlocked."
The CIA stars on the wall aren't just decorations or even just a memorial. They are a ledger. A ledger of a very specific, very quiet kind of sacrifice that happens in the shadows. Whether you agree with the Agency's missions or not, the wall stands as a testament to the human cost of the "Great Game."
If you ever get the chance to see it—perhaps through a rare public tour or an invitation—take a second to look at the blank spaces in the book. Those are the ones that tell the loudest stories.