Smithsonian Channel Documentary

Smithsonian_Video Smithsonian Channel — Youtube
 

OSS Society

Helias Doundoulakis, Recipient of the 2015 Distinguished Service Award

OSS Society — Youtube
 

Recent Events
WWII O.S.S. Soldiers Honored in Astoria, Queens, NY, for Service Behind the Lines in Nazi-Occupied Greece, Italy, and Yugoslavia.

read more »

TRIBUTE

OSS BOOKS

Support OSS Veterans

See more...

Number of Visits
completely free counter

THE ARECIBO ANTENNA — NEW!

The Arecibo Antenna on Audible



I Was Trained To Be A Spy


by Helias Doundoulakis


“There are no bugles for spies...no buddies to spur them on…for it is one thing to go into battle with hundreds of others, quite another thing to drop silently into the very midst of the enemy with only your wits to save you. Wits and a colossal amount of steel-nerved courage. They are alone, alone in every way, alone in their work, alone in their very livelihood, alone especially in their thoughts. They must be wary of every contact, guarded of every word, cautious in every moment....how they eat, where they sleep and where they work. It is all up to them alone. Then, the most terrifying of all possibilities becomes reality; when one is captured, and the spy is irretrievably, cruelly alone…his very existence is ignored and those closest to him desert him. He lives with torture, or he dies, alone…his death is just vanishing and unknown, his grave unmarked.

 

No one knows for certain what makes a good agent and unless you are able to look on the whole business of espionage and sabotage as a tremendous gamble, you shouldn't be involved in it. Nerve? Certainly. But what passes for nerve under even the most rigorous training may turn devastating when the chips are down and the agent finds himself on his own among enemies. Patriotism and loyalty? Of course. But who is to say that these will not fade under torture and turn the most steadfast operative into the most dreaded of all espionage weapons, the double agent. Intelligence? Without it your man is dead for, once in enemy territory and on his own completely.

 

  So you gamble...

 

  It seems incredible that some thirty thousand people could keep a secret. It is more unbelievable when one realizes that those thirty thousand persons were scattered throughout the world. They represented every nationality, every type of individual, every religion, every political belief, every economic condition. Yet such was the vast complex of the Office of Strategic Services, the OSS.”

 

Robert Hayden Alcorn, No Bugles for Spies , 1962

 

  In I Was Trained To Be A Spy, you’ll find characters with their pain and misfortune, and the wit and courage of those who survived. . . detailed descriptions of spy training at the secret spy school in Cairo. . . witness how a simple, un-assuming youth adapted to each spine-tingling situation, while working under the noses of the Gestapo, and the skillful ways he used to avoid capture. From his escape to Egypt, the training at OSS HQ in Cairo, his mission, and to his final discharge from the US Army. . . I Was Trained to Be a Spy is sure to fascinate all who enjoy adventure and the world of espionage.

 


www.myuniquelifetimeassociationwithpatrickleighfermor.org
www.trainedtobeanossspy.com