Office of Strategic Services

During World War II, the OSS (Office of Strategic Services), Special Operations Branch had recruited foreign language speakers who would volunteer for hazardous duty behind enemy lines and parachute into denied territory. The Jedburgh teams were born. Wanted: Volunteers for immediate overseas assignment. Knowledge of French or another European language preferred; Willingness and ability to […]

OSS – UNDERCOVER | SPY TRAINING FILM – ca. 1942 – ca. 1945: Analyze preparation, arrival, establishment, and “prevalent cover” for secret agents by presenting one movie within another, as introduced by Colonel Robertson, chief of Schools and Training at Office of Strategic Services. R.1: Gives examples of agents discovered because of inattention to details, […]

In February 1945, a small group of personnel assigned to the Office of Strategic Services, the wartime spy agency, scrambled to prepare for a particularly risky mission: inserting a team of agents deep behind Nazi lines with the goal of gleaning crucial enemy information. For a host of reasons, the proposed operation seemed like a suicide mission. […]

In a previous article, I wrote about the Office of Strategic Services Congressional Gold Medal Act (HR 3929) which was introduced in 2015 by the OSS Society with the hopes of awarding the Congressional Gold Medal, collectively, to the members of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) in recognition of their superior service and major contributions during […]

The legacy of this tough group of volunteers is being carried forward by members of the 75th Ranger Regiment, whose crest is the Merrill’s Marauder patch, which has never officially been authorized.

Soon she’d been dispatched to the Adriatic coast to analyze aerial photographs of concentration camps and plan troop drops. She was 21.

A spy-vs.-spy race to secure naturally enriched uranium from Congo to fuel the Manhattan Project and keep the rare mineral out of Nazi hands.

The Legion of Merit was formally presented at Rader’s funeral.
“Stephanie chose the life of a warrior,” said U.S. Army Capt. Azande Sasa, the presiding chaplain at the ceremony. “She has earned her place among those honored here.”

This is SOFWERX — a stylized name that roughly translates to Special Operations Forces Works — a Special Operations Command (SOCOM)-funded technology incubator that opened its doors at the end of 2015.

OSS – UNDERCOVER | SPY TRAINING FILM – ca. 1942 – ca. 1945: Analyze preparation, arrival, establishment, and “prevalent cover” for secret agents by presenting one movie within another, as introduced by Colonel Robertson, chief of Schools and Training at Office of Strategic Services. R.1: Gives examples of agents discovered because of inattention to details, […]

Train Wreck: Experiments To Derail Trains – Archive Footage In March 1944, the United States National Defense Resources Committee & Office of Strategic Services performed a number of experiments on the Claiborne-Polk military railroad to help determine the best way to derail trains. The results were presented in the film “Derailment”. The film discusses the amount […]

Most World War II spies learned little of import—and those who did were invariably disbelieved. Any historian who hopes to tell the true story of secret intelligence operations, even from the distant past, quickly discovers that he is up against two formidable obstacles. First is the Kafkaesque system of government classification. Not only do U.S. […]