Transfer Request

Naval Criminal Investigative Service

Date: 05/18/2015

From: Timothy F. McGee (SA# 7152) (MCRT)|

To: Leon Vance (DIRNCIS)

CC: Leroy Jethro Gibbs (SAC) (MCRT); Anthony DiNozzo (SFA) (MCRT)

Request for Transfer: I am respectfully requesting a transfer from my current position as a Special Agent for NCISs Major Case Response Team, to any position available, that would enable me to further my career at NCIS.

Reason for Transfer: For the last eleven years, I have worked for the MCRT under the supervision of Special Agent in Charge (SAC) Gibbs, and to a lesser extent, Senior Field Agent (SFA) Anthony DiNozzo. When I first arrived, even I will admit that I was rather naïve about the world, and still believed that in order to get ahead in life, all I had to do was show up and do my job to the best of my ability.

When I arrived here I endured the standard Probie treatment, getting coffee, and doing the grunt work that is probably necessary for all field agents. During the course of my tenure at NCIS, I have assisted in the resolution of over 240 cases, some even before I arrived at NCIS Headquarters. Many involving some of the most dangerous people on the planet, from Ari Haswari to Sergei Mishnev. I have aided in the destruction of many enemies of the United States, putting my life on the line on numerous occasions, from going undercover to intentionally getting captured in the Saharan Desert to bring down a terror cell. Where it turns out one of my friends and co-workers Ziva Davíd, had been held captive for months, enduring torture the likes of which I cannot even imagine. I was part of the investigation into a possible mole within NCIS, whose name I will not divulge on this document.

Given all that I have accomplished, sacrificed, and done, I came to believe I was a valued and trusted member of my team. Let me say that again, I believed I was a trusted member of my team, as a Special Agent of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service. That belief of being valued and trusted has been proven false, and that fact was never made clearer than when I was not trusted to be read into the recent Operation Codename: Lex Talionis, back at the end of March – the details of said operation are classified TOP SECRET and have no baring upon my request – my dissatisfaction comes, not solely from my exclusion from the op, but the fact that an agent with lower seniority than me was included in the case, and I was not. The said agent, at the time the operation came to fruition, had since resigned from the agency, and was incommunicado, therefore she also could have put the entire operation at risk if her identity in the op had been compromised. I do not believe she would have voluntarily divulged any information, but as Ziva, herself was so fond of saying when she first came here: "everyone has a breaking point," and after what Saleem Ulman put her through five years ago, her threshold may have shrunk since then.

I have never felt more like an outsider on this team until I learned that, somebody who had left the agency was deemed less of a security threat to this operation, than someone who thought he had shown himself to be a dedicated and trustworthy agent. It did not help that Tony would occasionally hint that I could not have handled this or any other aspect of 'the Job;' never mind that I have been a Special Agent for eleven years; never mind that I was the head of my own Team during the initial phases of the Mole Hunt, mentioned above; never mind that I've worked sick days, weekends, holidays, and was shot down over Russia with Agent Gibbs, held hostage in a women's prison, and had to conduct an entire investigation while under duress. If that does not qualify me for the kind of work NCIS does, then I can only think of one thing that will. I need to gain more experience in other areas of law enforcement.

I am the only one on my team, that has no prior experience in law enforcement or government, before coming to the Naval Criminal Investigative Service. Special Agent Gibbs was a Marine Scout/Sniper and a military police non-commissioned officer at Camp Lejeune. Special Agent DiNozzo was a police officer from three different police forces before joining NCIS. Special Agent Todd (may she rest in peace) was with the Secret Service before Gibbs recruited her, and Special Agent David was with Israeli Mossad before becoming a naturalized citizen and then a Special Agent. I am the only member of my team who did not come to NCIS from another branch of law enforcement or even another government agency. Even Special Agent Bishop was an NSA analyst before coming here, every person on my team has experience outside of NCIS. Everybody, except me, and I have only ever worked in two places, Norfolk and here. Therefore, since I do not wish to leave NCIS, if I am going to earn your trust Director, Boss, Tony, I have concluded that I need to move on from my current assignment and gain experience in other aspects of NCIS. Hence this transfer request, which I am more than willing to place on the backburner until Gibbs and DiNozzo have returned from the Middle East, and we have dealt with the Calling.

Director Vance, during the Lex Talionis Operation, you admonished me to keep my ego in check, and you were right to do so, because it really was my ego that was bruised when I learned of the op after it began. Now, after a month and a half, I have had plenty of time to think about why I was excluded from it, and I concluded that I just did not have the right experience, so for the sake of NCIS, I respectfully request this transfer.

Signed,

Timothy F. McGee (SA# 7152/NCIS)