Dan Boylan at the Washington
Times offers a piece on the WWII OSS receiving the Congressional Gold Medal.
The Congressional Gold Medal,
the nation’s highest civilian distinction, was awarded on Wednesday to veterans
of the Office of Strategic Services, the World War II intelligence agency and
CIA predecessor.
In a ceremony at the U.S.
Capitol’s Emancipation Hall stressing realism, idealism and above all else
patriotism, House Speaker Paul Ryan, Wisconsin Republican, presented the medal
“on behalf of a very grateful nation.”
“It is the spirit of these
veterans that endures,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Kentucky
Republican, added. “Their pluck and patriotism proved that any American could
rise to defeat the foes of freedom. How fortunate we are that these heroes
answered the call.”
Created in 1942 by the
legendary General William ‘Wild Bill’ Donovan (seen in the below photo) to coordinate American
intelligence efforts, in its heyday the OSS deployed more than 13,000
operatives, a third of them women, in addition to four future CIA directors.
Pioneers of sabotage,
intelligence gathering, supplying resistance movements, capturing high-value
targets and infiltrating enemy strongholds, OSS agents were in Gen. Donovan’s
words “glorious amateurs” who undertook “some of the bravest acts of the war.”
Mr. Donovan’s statue now
stands outside CIA headquarters in Virginia (photo above) and the OSS is widely recognized
for playing a major role in the creation of the CIA and formation of the Army
Green Berets and Navy Seals.
You can read the rest of the
piece via the below link:
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2018/mar/21/oss-office-strategic-services-awarded-congressiona/
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