Congressman Charles Rangel presents Bronze Star posthumously awarded to Joseph Gould by US Army Decorations Board
02 February 2010
However, because of the extended period of time that OSS personnel files remained classified, Joseph Gould was never able to claim his award before his death in 1993. Now, because of the release of these personnel files to the National Archives in August 2008, the long wait endured by his family has finally ended. With the support of Congressman Rangel’s office, the Army Decorations Board reviewed documents obtained from Joseph Gould’s personnel file showing that he had been recommended and approved for the Bronze Star after the war. As a result, the Board formally approved the release of the medal to Congressman Rangel and requested that he present it to Jonathan Gould on behalf of Joseph Gould’s family.
Within months after the United States entered World War II following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, Joseph Gould enlisted in the US Army. Because of training he received from the Officer Reserve Corp while attending Columbia Journalism School, he was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant and ordered to report for basic infantry training at Camp Croft in South Carolina in July 1942.
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Glorious Amateurs Needed
18 January 2010 Author:Charles
Pinck
Published in Sphere
As Congress prepares to start hearings on the Christmas Day attack on Northwest Airlines Flight 253, there will be an inevitable focus on how to use the latest technology – better databases, full-body scanners and the like – to detect and prevent future attacks.
But the fact is that despite remarkable advances in technology, intelligence remains a distinctly human endeavor. There is no machine that can substitute for a human being's intellect, judgment, instinct or courage.
And if lawmakers want to truly reform our intelligence community, they would be wise to look backward instead of forward – all the way back to World War II's Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the predecessor to the CIA and U.S. Special Operations Forces.
This "unusual experiment," as its visionary founder, Maj. Gen. William J. "Wild Bill" Donovan, described it in his 1945 farewell address, succeeded principally because of its diverse and brilliant personnel, many of whom probably would never get admitted into today's intelligence services.
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As Congress prepares to start hearings on the Christmas Day attack on Northwest Airlines Flight 253, there will be an inevitable focus on how to use the latest technology – better databases, full-body scanners and the like – to detect and prevent future attacks.
But the fact is that despite remarkable advances in technology, intelligence remains a distinctly human endeavor. There is no machine that can substitute for a human being's intellect, judgment, instinct or courage.
And if lawmakers want to truly reform our intelligence community, they would be wise to look backward instead of forward – all the way back to World War II's Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the predecessor to the CIA and U.S. Special Operations Forces.
This "unusual experiment," as its visionary founder, Maj. Gen. William J. "Wild Bill" Donovan, described it in his 1945 farewell address, succeeded principally because of its diverse and brilliant personnel, many of whom probably would never get admitted into today's intelligence services.
Read More...
Time For A New OSS
08 December 2009
By Charles S. Faddis
New York Post
Last week, President Obama laid out his plan for prosecuting the 8-year-old war in Afghanistan. Thirty-thousand additional US troops will be headed to Afghanistan over the next several months, part of an intensified effort to regain territory from the Taliban and give the fledgling Afghan security forces a chance to take control of that nation. Regardless of what you think of the decision and the President’s announcement of it, here are some indisputable facts:
Al Qaeda, the organization that actually attacked us on 9/11, retains almost no presence in Afghanistan. Its central leadership now operates primarily from an area across the border in neighboring Pakistan. Its members are scattered across a host of other nations. The Taliban, the organization with which we are currently at war in Afghanistan, has almost no capability to stage international terrorist attacks and has confined its goals almost exclusively to the establishment of an Islamic state in Afghanistan. It poses no direct threat to the territory of the United States.
In short, even assuming complete and total victory in Afghanistan, all we really will have accomplished is to prevent the possibility of that nation again becoming a safe haven for use by terrorist organizations bent on doing us harm. We will not have defeated al Qaeda, and, in fact, we may not have even significantly degraded the capabilities of that organization. This entire massive conventional military effort will not win this war.
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New York Post
Last week, President Obama laid out his plan for prosecuting the 8-year-old war in Afghanistan. Thirty-thousand additional US troops will be headed to Afghanistan over the next several months, part of an intensified effort to regain territory from the Taliban and give the fledgling Afghan security forces a chance to take control of that nation. Regardless of what you think of the decision and the President’s announcement of it, here are some indisputable facts:
Al Qaeda, the organization that actually attacked us on 9/11, retains almost no presence in Afghanistan. Its central leadership now operates primarily from an area across the border in neighboring Pakistan. Its members are scattered across a host of other nations. The Taliban, the organization with which we are currently at war in Afghanistan, has almost no capability to stage international terrorist attacks and has confined its goals almost exclusively to the establishment of an Islamic state in Afghanistan. It poses no direct threat to the territory of the United States.
In short, even assuming complete and total victory in Afghanistan, all we really will have accomplished is to prevent the possibility of that nation again becoming a safe haven for use by terrorist organizations bent on doing us harm. We will not have defeated al Qaeda, and, in fact, we may not have even significantly degraded the capabilities of that organization. This entire massive conventional military effort will not win this war.
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New Book Reviews
Spymaster: Dai Li and the Chinese Secret
Service
By Frederic Wakeman, Jr.
Reviewed by Bob Bergin
Covert Action in the Cold War: US Policy, Intelligence and CIA Operations
By James Callanan
Honorable Survivor: Mao's China, McCarthy's America and The Persecution of John S. Service
By Lynne Joined
Reviewed by Joseph C. Goulden
~ updated review ~
World War II: Saving the Reality (A Collector's Vault)
By Kenneth Rendell
Reviewed by Dan Pinck
Go To Book Reviews
By Frederic Wakeman, Jr.
Reviewed by Bob Bergin
Covert Action in the Cold War: US Policy, Intelligence and CIA Operations
By James Callanan
Honorable Survivor: Mao's China, McCarthy's America and The Persecution of John S. Service
By Lynne Joined
Reviewed by Joseph C. Goulden
~ updated review ~
World War II: Saving the Reality (A Collector's Vault)
By Kenneth Rendell
Reviewed by Dan Pinck
Go To Book Reviews
The OSS Society dedicated an OSS plaque at the Special Operations Memorial Foundation in Tampa, FL on November 2, 2009.
17 November 2009
(l. to r.) Major Caesar Civitella, USA (Ret.), OSS Society Board Member Arthur Reinhardt, Geoff Barker, President of the Special Operations Memorial Foundation, and OSS Society Board Member Walter Mess.
New Book Reviews
10 November 2009 Author:Dan
Pinck
The Hornet's Sting: The Untold Story of
Britain's Second World War Spy Thomas Sneum
By Mark Ryan
James Jesus Angleton, The CIA, & The Craft Of Counterintelligence
By Michael Holzman
Reviewed by Dan Pinck
Ian Fleming's Secret War
By Craig Cabell
Go To Book Reviews
By Mark Ryan
James Jesus Angleton, The CIA, & The Craft Of Counterintelligence
By Michael Holzman
Reviewed by Dan Pinck
Ian Fleming's Secret War
By Craig Cabell
Go To Book Reviews
New Book Reviews
24 October 2009
The Cloak and Dagger Cook: A CIA Memoir
By Kay Shaw Nelson
Defend the Realm: The Authorized History of MI5
By Christopher Andrew
Beyond Repair: The Decline and Fall of the CIA
By Charles Faddis
Dr. Seuss & Co. Go to War: The World War II Editorial Cartoons of America’s Leading Comic Artists
By Andre Schiffrin
World War II: Saving the Reality (A Collector's Vault)
By Kenneth Rendell
The Monuments Men: Allied Heroes, Nazi Thieves, and the Greatest Treasure Hunt in History
By Robert Edsel
A Spy's Diary of World War II: Inside the OSS With an American Agent in Europe
By Wayne Nelson
Go To Book Reviews
By Kay Shaw Nelson
Defend the Realm: The Authorized History of MI5
By Christopher Andrew
Beyond Repair: The Decline and Fall of the CIA
By Charles Faddis
Dr. Seuss & Co. Go to War: The World War II Editorial Cartoons of America’s Leading Comic Artists
By Andre Schiffrin
World War II: Saving the Reality (A Collector's Vault)
By Kenneth Rendell
The Monuments Men: Allied Heroes, Nazi Thieves, and the Greatest Treasure Hunt in History
By Robert Edsel
A Spy's Diary of World War II: Inside the OSS With an American Agent in Europe
By Wayne Nelson
Go To Book Reviews
'Basterd'ized History
04 September 2009 Author:Charles
Pinck
Published in The Washington Times
By Charles T. Pinck
An 'inglourious' view of the intelligence services
Given the very close relationship between Hollywood and World War II's Office of Strategic Services (OSS), forerunner of the CIA and U.S. Special Operations Forces, whose ranks included director John Ford and actors Robert Montgomery and Sterling Hayden, it's troubling that Hollywood has distorted the history of the OSS in two recent major motion pictures, "The Good Shepherd" and "Inglourious Basterds."
These two movies present diametrically opposite but equally false assertions about the OSS, particularly about the important role played within the organization by Jews and other minorities.
In "The Good Shepherd," OSS founder Maj. Gen. William J. Donovan (portrayed as Gen. William Sullivan in the movie), recruits Matt Damon's character, a member of Yale's Skull and Bones, to join OSS by telling him, "We are looking for honorable and patriotic young men. No Jews, no blacks, and only a few Catholics."
The notion that Gen. Donovan -- a devout Catholic -- would say such a thing is preposterous. Nothing could be further from the truth.
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By Charles T. Pinck
An 'inglourious' view of the intelligence services
Given the very close relationship between Hollywood and World War II's Office of Strategic Services (OSS), forerunner of the CIA and U.S. Special Operations Forces, whose ranks included director John Ford and actors Robert Montgomery and Sterling Hayden, it's troubling that Hollywood has distorted the history of the OSS in two recent major motion pictures, "The Good Shepherd" and "Inglourious Basterds."
These two movies present diametrically opposite but equally false assertions about the OSS, particularly about the important role played within the organization by Jews and other minorities.
In "The Good Shepherd," OSS founder Maj. Gen. William J. Donovan (portrayed as Gen. William Sullivan in the movie), recruits Matt Damon's character, a member of Yale's Skull and Bones, to join OSS by telling him, "We are looking for honorable and patriotic young men. No Jews, no blacks, and only a few Catholics."
The notion that Gen. Donovan -- a devout Catholic -- would say such a thing is preposterous. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Read More...
Gen. David Petraeus Receives the William J. Donovan Award®
04 June 2009
PR Newswire
Remarks by General Petraeus
SEE MORE PHOTOS
Gen. David H. Petraeus, commanding general, U.S. Central Command, received the William J. Donovan Award from The OSS Society on May 2, 2009 at an event attended by more than 600 people in Washington at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel.
The William J. Donovan Award is named after the founder of World War II's Office of Strategic Services (OSS), Maj. Gen. William "Wild Bill" Donovan.
OSS was the forerunner of the Central Intelligence Agency and U.S. Special Operations Forces.
Donovan is the only American to have received our nation's four highest decorations, including the Medal of Honor.
Charles Pinck, OSS Society president, said, "In much the same manner that General Donovan created a revolutionary new organization capable of waging unconventional warfare with OSS, General Petraeus has revolutionized the Army's view of counterinsurgency by challenging conventional wisdom, by recruiting supremely talented and diverse people to help him, and by overcoming formidable internal and external obstacles to turn the tide in Iraq and, we hope, in Afghanistan."
In his intoduction of Petraeus, Maj. Gen. John K. Singlub, USA, Ret., a 2007 award recipient and OSS Society chairman, said "The William J. Donovan Award is given to an individual who has rendered distinguished service in the interests of the democratic process, public service, courage in all its forms and the cause of freedom."
Adding, "General Petraeus' leadership of our nation's military in Iraq and Afghanistan has been nothing less than revolutionary and inspirational.
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Remarks by General Petraeus
SEE MORE PHOTOS
Gen. David H. Petraeus, commanding general, U.S. Central Command, received the William J. Donovan Award from The OSS Society on May 2, 2009 at an event attended by more than 600 people in Washington at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel.
The William J. Donovan Award is named after the founder of World War II's Office of Strategic Services (OSS), Maj. Gen. William "Wild Bill" Donovan.
OSS was the forerunner of the Central Intelligence Agency and U.S. Special Operations Forces.
Donovan is the only American to have received our nation's four highest decorations, including the Medal of Honor.
Charles Pinck, OSS Society president, said, "In much the same manner that General Donovan created a revolutionary new organization capable of waging unconventional warfare with OSS, General Petraeus has revolutionized the Army's view of counterinsurgency by challenging conventional wisdom, by recruiting supremely talented and diverse people to help him, and by overcoming formidable internal and external obstacles to turn the tide in Iraq and, we hope, in Afghanistan."
In his intoduction of Petraeus, Maj. Gen. John K. Singlub, USA, Ret., a 2007 award recipient and OSS Society chairman, said "The William J. Donovan Award is given to an individual who has rendered distinguished service in the interests of the democratic process, public service, courage in all its forms and the cause of freedom."
Adding, "General Petraeus' leadership of our nation's military in Iraq and Afghanistan has been nothing less than revolutionary and inspirational.
Read More...