Recognition from Congress is coming too late for William McGhee, a former CIA officer who died last month at age 93.
But it’s coming in time for the roughly 100 surviving veterans of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the predecessor to the Central Intelligence Agency and U.S. special operations forces.
{mosads}This Wednesday, the House is slated to vote on awarding members of the OSS the Congressional Gold Medal in recognition of their service and contributions during World War II. The bill is expected to pass easily and then head to President Obama’s desk for his signature.
A handful of the surviving veterans — many of them in their 90s — plan to be on hand for the House vote.
Hugh Montgomery, 93, will be among them. He is chairman of the OSS Society.
“I bet nothing until I see it,” said Montgomery of the vote.
Montgomery, who told The Hill he parachuted behind enemy lines four times, was an Army veteran before he entered the OSS’s “X-2,” or counterespionage unit.
“I wouldn’t call it a picnic,” he said of his time in the OSS. “For someone who was 18, 19 at the time, it was a rather sobering experience.”
“We didn’t know each others’ names. We just got instructions, were told, ‘Don’t ask stupid questions,’ ” he said.
The clandestine OSS had different units, which later served as the blueprint for the CIA and the Army’s Special Forces, the Navy’s SEALs, as well as the Air Force and Marines’s special operations commands. U.S. Coast Guard personnel also served in the OSS.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt created the OSS after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, and it was behind some of the most daring operations of World War II.
The OSS at one point reached 13,000 members, including about 4,500 women, though it was only in existence for three and a half years. Montgomery believes there are fewer than 100 veterans of the OSS still alive.
Famous members included four future directors of the CIA, including William Casey, William Colby, Allen Dulles and Richard Helms. Ralph Bunche, the first African-American to receive the Nobel Peace Prize, also served in the OSS.
Famous female members include Virginia Hall, the only civilian female to receive a Distinguished Service Cross in World War II, and the chef Julia Child.
“General Eisenhower credited the OSS’s covert contribution in France to the equivalent to having an extra military division,” the House’s bill states.
The unit that Montgomery served in, X-2, is credited with establishing the modern counterintelligence community.
The OSS inspired movies, including Quentin Tarantino’s “Inglourious Basterds,” which Montgomery has not seen.
“Once was bad enough,” he said of his war experience. “You can’t capture the reality of war, really.”
Despite Tarantino’s movie, little is known about the OSS, Montgomery said, since so few of them wrote accounts.
The recognition from Congress is particularly important to surviving OSS members like Montgomery, who worry that the memory of them will disappear. He called the vote on the bill “long overdue.”
The measure was first introduced in the 113th Congress by Rep. Bob Latta (R-Ohio) and was reintroduced again in the 114th Congress.
Charles Pinck, the president of the OSS Society, did not serve in the OSS, but his father did.
“It’s very personal to me,” Pinck told The Hill. “A lot of people contributed to getting it passed. … It was not an easy thing to do.”
He said the OSS “really hasn’t been recognized in any way before,” and he hopes that after the bill becomes law, a museum will be erected next.
The Senate passed its version of the bill, introduced by Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), unanimously in February.
“From establishing intelligence
networks deep behind enemy lines to bolstering resistance organizations throughout Europe and Asia, the members of the OSS saved thousands of lives and played a critical role in securing the Allied victory in World War II,” Blunt said in a statement to The Hill.
Montgomery particularly credits Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) for helping to push the bill forward in the Senate.
“Those who served our country in the OSS deserve to be honored for their heroic, pioneering contributions to our nation. Last year marked the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II, and not many of these brave OSS veterans are still with us,” said Warner in a statement to The Hill.