Joining the OSS: Competing histories

Over the past weeks, I've been trying to piece together a background history of the OSS in order to get a better understanding of the organization that Opapa joined during World War II. I'm also trying to learn more abouthow Opapa joined the organization, and what he thought about it. 

I'll start with the latter question. Here, the information I have is from Opapa's own autobiography notes. He had a draft for Chapter 3 "At OSS," in which he included two similar, but somewhat divergent, stories about how he joined by the military and the OSS. I copy them both in full below:

VERSION 1 (Drafted by Opapa):

"When World War II broke out in Europe, I was classified an "enemy alien" that meant that I had to report to the Immigration and Naturalization Service once a year and could not serve in the U.S. army. However by 1942(check) , the American army needed men sufficiently to abolish the ban on foreigners. I was inducted into the army and became an instant U.S. citizen. 

"When I reported for induction, the sergeant said, "There isn’t much choice, but there is only one thing, if anybody wants to join the paratroops, step forward" I stepped forward. Having been a journalist, I knew the Army would put me into a desk job, and that was not why I joined. (Later, I did become the editor of an Army Airborne unit, that I entitled “Static Line” for the line that opens the parachute after leaving the plane. ) He said, "Well, you turn to the left, everybody else turn to the right." 

"I was put on a train to Fort Benning, Georgia, for paratroop training.  It was August, it was Georgia, and the paratroop training rule was "never walk; always double-time." At the end of each day, we scraped the salt from the back of your shirt with a knife.

"When the training was completed, I was assigned to the 541st Parachute Infantry in Camp MacKall, North Carolina.  I heard that the regiment was about to be sent to the Pacific. "Uh, uh!  I have a score to settle somewhere else." I called up the OSS (Office of Strategic Services) in Washington to offer my services. They asked me to go to a certain street corner in D.C. at a certain time; someone would pick me up there.  I waited at the appointed time and place. No one came. That was my first experience with the usual army Snafu, a situation even more frequent in the intelligence service. Typical of their supposedly secret address was that when I hailed a taxi and said I'd like to go the OSS’s office, the driver just nodded and drove me to the supposedly secret location. It was the Congressional Country Club that the Army took over for the duration of the war.

"The next Snafu: no one knew who sent me the order to report, and no one could locate anyone to find out. So I started shopping around at the base.  One sign on a barrack said "O.G. - Operational Groups." That looked interesting. I went in and asked who was in charge. A captain showed up.  I told him my story. He said, "O.k., join us." So I became a member of an O.G., training for sabotage work."

VERSION 2 (Also drafted by Opapa): 

"Along about 1942, the American army needed men sufficiently to abolish the ban on foreigners, even enemy aliens, so at that point I was inducted into the army, which I was. There was one option available.  I was determined that if and when I got into the army, I didn’t want to do a desk job or whatever I would be doing as a civilian because, you know, I felt that I could contribute to the war effort and to the antifascist effort as a civilian just as well as long as I was writing or editing or doing newspaper work -- for that I didn't need the army.  So when the inducting sergeant said, “There isn’t much choice, but there is only one thing, if anybody wants to join the paratroops, step forward”  I almost automatically stepped forward, and he said, "Well, you turn to the left, everybody else turn to the right" I went to the left and I was told to take a train to Fort Benning, Georgia, for paratroop training.  So I underwent paratroop training, was assigned to the 541st Parachute Infantry in Camp Mackall, North Carolina.

"When I heard that the regiment was about to be sent to the Pacific, I said, "Uh, uh! This is not my destination" So I went to Washington and visited with the OSS (Office of Strategic Services), which was the intelligence arm of the American army, who interviewed me and nodded and said, “Well, good-bye, don’t t call us.  If we need you, we'll call you.” In less than two weeks the order came down to my regiment saying, "Private First Class Gerbner report to Washington” at a certain place, which I did, and I was recruited into the OSS in the Operational Group called OG.  There were two major field arms of the OSS.  One was called OG, Operational Groups; the other one was called SI, Secret Intelligence.  I was assigned to an Operational Group, which was a group of about fifteen trained to do small missions -- sabotage, blowing up roads, bridges, etc. -- and we underwent some training and were sent to North Africa.  I had an extended and very pleasant period in Algiers and further training but basically was waiting for a mission."

***

I appreciate competing narratives because they are a reminder that our memories, and our narratives, are never static. As soon as something has happened, we put it into a story and make meaning out of it. Of course, as we change, and due to a variety of factors, we adjust certain aspects of the memory, or choose to highlight some and either ignore, suppress, or censor others. It's usually not all that intentional, it's just part of trying to make sense of everything that's happened in our lives. 

In these two retellings, the contours of the story remain mostly the same:  (1) Opapa was unable to join the army before 1942 because he was classified as an enemy alien; (2) Once the ban on foreigners was lifted, he joined the military; (3) Opapa did not want a desk job, so he volunteered for the Paratroopers; (4) He departed for Camp Mackall, Georgia, where he had paratrooping training and was inducted into the 541st Paratroop Infantry; (5) When he heard that his regiment would be shipped to the Pacific, he volunteered for the OSS, and joined an Operational Group. 

And yet there are some fissures. It's interesting, for example, that in Version 2, the OSS seems like a seamlessly operating organization. Opapa says he "went to Washington," had an interview, was told he would be called if needed, and then received an order asking him to report to Washington "at a certain place." He did so, and was then "recruited into the OSS in the Operational Group called OG." He joined a group of "about fifteen" trained to do "small missions - sabotage, blowing up roads, bridges, etc." Very coherent, purposeful, simple. 

Then, look back at Version 1: as in Version 2, he went to Washington, interviewed at the OSS offices, and was told to await a call. Yet the narratives diverge at this point: instead of being "recruited into the OSS," he "waited" at the "appointed time and place," but "no one came." "That was my first experience with the usual army Snafu, a situation even more frequent in the intelligence service." Here, the OSS is not a polished organization, but a bumbling upstart group that was rather disorganized. To make the story more absurd, when Opapa finally got into a taxi and "said [he'd] like to tgo to the OSS's office," the driver "just nodded and drove [him] to the supposedly secret location." So much for the "secret" part. Turns out the the OSS offices were at the "Congressional Country Club that the Army took over for the duration of the war." 

Upon arrival, there are more "snafus," as Opapa called them: "no one knew who sent me the order to report, and no one could locate anyone to find out." Opapa, ever the problem-solver, "started shopping around at the base." He saw one sign that said "O.G. - Operational Groups." It "looked interesting," so he "went in and asked who was in charge." Soon thereafter, "A captain showed up." Opapa "told him [his] story," and he replied, "O.k., join us." And that, apparently, is how Opapa "became a member of an O.G., training for sabotage work."

I like these juxtaposed stories because they show what tends to happen over time, particularly when writing institutional histories: in retrospect, the "snafus" appear less significant as a more polished narrative emerges. I've found this to be especially the case in the published histories of the OSS that I've read: the narrative of the OSS as the 'precursor to the CIA' makes the OSS seem more intentional, more solid, and far more legitimate and organized. In practice, and especially during the War, it was a rapidly expanding and rather disorganized agency that was, in many cases, making things up as it went along.