A True World War II Spy Adventure on this Veterans Day
Most of us think we know all about soldiers and spies because we follow the actors who play such roles on television and in the movies. Thus, we see actors engaging in a lot of “action,” and we—at least those of us who have not been soldiers or spies—learn to suspend all disbelief. We are used to seeing a month long battle or even an entire war begin and end within an hour or two, and we leave the theater knowing that, in the end, the “good guys and gals” always triumph.
This is crazy. Even though I myself am an avid fan of television’s NCIS, and most of the World War Two movies (Flags of Our Fathers, Letters from Iwo Jima, Saving Private Ryan, etc.), I am far more interested in the stories of real life soldiers and spies. I want to know what they think, what they do, how they learn their craft. Recently, an incredibly dignified hero came my way.
First, a letter arrived in the old-fashioned manner. The author cordially addressed me as a “colleague in the field of terrorism.” He asked whether I might like to read his unpublished manuscript about Islam and terrorism.
I was about to say no when, on a hunch, I agreed to look at his work.
A package soon arrived which weighed at least five pounds. I opened it and almost immediately began to read his book, which is tentatively titled: The DNA of Terrorism. The work, which focuses on Islamic fundamentalism, is very, very good. Now, I was curious about the author. I wanted to know how he came by this extraordinary knowledge.
Before I could even reach for the phone, he called and suggested we meet. He said:
I must tell you that both I and my wife still adhere to a 1930s dress code.
I plowed through my closet wondering what in God’s name to wear. Gloves? A hat? Nylon stockings? I ended up wearing what I usually do.
Next: “This example of double volunteerism constitutes the essence of patriotism.”
What a tremendous story! My grandfather also served in WWII as an Alamo Scout (pre-cursor to the Navy Seals) in the Pacific theatre, and his stories of his exploits catalysed a lifelong fascination with World War II for me. The stories of heros like John Behling leave me humbled. All these individuals give such an impression of self-discipline, patriotism, dignity, and honor. Thank you John Behling for your service, and thank you Phyllis for sharing this story. Happy Veteran’s Day.
Is Phyllis testing us?
“John wears a jaunty beret and his jacket is festooned with possibly six rows of military medals and ribbons…”
That’s no beret! And I count two ‘rows’, possibly four with the odd items others discuss.
I am a fan of Phyllis; so what gives?
First and foremost – Thank You Veterans!
Great read, thank you Dr. Chesler. I like that you included the intelligence services, the work they do is dangerous and should be considered as service to our country.
Heros like John Behling leave me humbled. Just when I despair that we wont see the likes of him again…I read of the exploits of MICHAEL P. MURPHY, or DAKOTA MEYER, or SALVATORE A. GIUNTA. Somehow we still find men of such caliber to do that which we can’t even imagine doing ourselves…and for that I thank the Lord.
They suffer and die so that we may live in peace and freedom; then we elect leaders who hate peace and despise freedom. Some call it grave spitting.
Just what political figure do you have in mind who “hates peace and despises freedom”?
What a great, fascinating story! Above all, I would like to convey a million thank yous to John Behling for your service and thank you to Dr. Chesler for publishing his story. I hope that his book somehow finds a publisher; the insights and knowledge it contains would be valuable beyond belief.
Great story! And there are so many more of them that haven’t been written down. Unfortunately, it is too late to get a lot of them.
I vaguely remember my great grandmother’s stories of Sherman’s troops in her Georgia yard. Sure wish I had written more of those old stories.
Thank you Mr. Jack Behling. And thank you Phyllis for sharing this.
I am in awe of and in debt to our servicemen.
Happy Veterans Day !
Fascinating. A salute to you Dr Chesler AND Mr Behling. This is a book to look forward to.
Will you be kind enough to let your readers know when his book is published? Please do. Sounds like a fascinating read!
Fascinating, but the account of Salzburg has some serious holes.
And sending someone to Bari, Italy for training –
training that would previously been done in the UK?
I’m assuming that this was done in ’44, after the Allies took control of southern Italy, but it would have been nice to point it out.
Perhaps a little too much editorial license?
I also wondered about the Bari/Salsburg revelation. The story is not clear when he was accepted by the OSS but it sounds like it was after open hostilities ceased. What he was doing prior to that not really gone into.
I served during the Korean war. Was in the 82nd 504 Abn Inf 50-51.6 mos jump training was at Ft Benning went overseas in 51+ assigned to Army units in Germany served till 53.
To AD:
OSS participated in the planning and execution of Operation Torch, across North Africa and then into Italy at Salerno. Because these locations were closer to Central Europe than the UK, there was always a HQ facility in the Mediterranean theatre and responsibility for intelligence in Central Europe. 12 OSS agents lost their lives in Mauthausen Concentration camp in Austria UK was a separate operation for France and Germany
I look forward to reading his book.
To get an idea how long the training and testing of OSS agents could take read
“Your Stepping on My Cloak and Dagger” by Roger Hall.
One of the problems with running agents with no official cover (NOC) is the high casualty rate of even the best of people. However people who have no field experience outside of embassy duties don’t make the best of analysts.
Considering how young an organization the OSS was they did very well indeed by my opinion. Even some of the failures messed with the German mind.
Mr Behling,thank you for sharing some of your sea stories. My father served for the duration as well but couldn’t get him to talk much about his experiences in Burma. He took his to the grave. A pity indeed. Remember as a 10 yr old far far away reading “Carve Her Name With Pride” about the British female SOE, Violette Szabo, posthumously awarded the George Cross for her work in France in WWII. Also, Noor Inayat Khan, daughter of an American mother and an Indian Sufi, also of the SOE who was killed Dachau in ’44. A great generation indeed Mr. Behling. With gratitude and deep respect.
SKB
Phyllis, I hate to say it, but I think you’ve been had. Good thing your dashing spy in the Air Force lieutenant’s uniform isn’t wearing any awards higher than an Army Good Conduct Medal (automatic award to enlisteds after 3 years), as some states prosecute for that.
My WWII dad’s 94th birthday would have been 11/12, he passed on 11/02/2011. Army tank division under Patton.
It used to be that the reporters who covered such topics were themselves veterans, not starry-eyed girls who couldn’t possible suspect anyone of grabbing a uniform at Goodwill and making it all up.
Where would you start with this guy? How old must he have been when he jumped into Nazi Europe? 5? Are there any veterans on this thread who can look at his uniform without laughing? Nice touch, the “50-mission crush” garrison cap just like he’d stepped off the Memphis Belle, but sewing British paratrooper wings onto his USAF tunic, on the wrong side no less, that was going a bit far. A PPK in “6.25 mm caliber”!? A “Fairbarn” commando knife? Come on, learn to Google, for gosh sakes.
He has an impressive number of qualification and marksmanship badges – combat infantry and airborne, but what’s incredible is that his “rack” of awards is basically nothing – good conduct, WW II service, Germany occupation, reserve longevity and member of an outstanding unit (neither ribbon existing until the 1950s).
You know, soon it will be just like with all the fake pleas for help in your email, enough of these stories and the public will suspect every veteran of fraud.
Shame on you. You obviously learned all you know about military uniforms on google–Phyllis and Jack did not. How dare you criticize the integrity of someone who fought for your freedom. Have you ever served? And, if you find his metals too few to “impress” you perhaps it is because he was INTELLIGENCE. Most of the men and women who do the most dangerous and important missions go unrecognized and un-metaled because they are CIA, ex-OSS, or FBI. Just because you can decipher some of his badges doesn’t mean you have any first-hand knowledge of service nor does it allow you to reduce Behling to a “nobody”, and just because Phyllis chose to, quite admirably, verbalize her PATRIOTISM does not make her a “starry eyed girl.” You are an embarrassment to your country.
*medals
carl and a3apt sound too cynical for their own good. I have met Mr Behling personally and bet he would walk circles around you both. He is a veteran both brilliant, and humble. I am grateful for the service he gave to our country and look forward to reading his book when published.
What a great story. Thank you sir for your service and to pjmedia for posting it. Nice work
His “fifty-mission crush” garrison cap was my first “huh?”. I mean, he looked nothing like you would see in real life, more like a bomber pilot from that old “12 O’clock High” TV series than a covert ops veteran.
Then I looked closer, before even reading about his super-secret heroism (why is it that they always use that excuse for no documentation?). Ever heard of anyone sewing a British jump badge onto their Class A’s? Kinda have doubts about the CIB and airborne badge as well, but no way to prove a negative. Nowadays Air Assault and Airborne are almost as important for promotion for combat arms lieutenants as the officer advanced course, and you wouldn’t believe the awards inflation going on.
My theory, from reading this dashing lieutenant’s extended bio, is that he joined the newly-formed USAF in the early 1950s and did his 4 active + 6 reserves, hence the 1954-era USAF outstanding unit and reserves longevity ribbons. I go with 1950s since he doesn’t look like any 90-year-old I’ve seen. More like a well-preserved 70. Of course, OSS could have had an elite team of 5-year-old commandos back then.
I’m also going to guess he was at W. Berlin station because of his occupation ribbon. Some hints he drops of his intell analysis work leads me to the conclusion he was in what was back then known as USAF-SS (Security Service), in which coincidentally I did 4 years before going Army (didn’t want to retire an E-5). Morons that we were, we seemed to think that the secret squirrel stuff made us heroic.
The dashing lieutenant also claimed a lot of foreign language, but that would have been wasted on an analyst, as they are pretty much six-week wonders who do a lot of filing and making coffee while good linguists take years to train and – unless they’ve gone deaf from too much headphone time – are too valuable, especially in Russian back then. He probably served under a bunch of WW II types, maybe even real OSS, and absorbed a few war stories. Probably picked up some German at Teufelsberg station, maybe even a few words of Russian while sweeping up the “jungle” where all the linguists labored.
His comments about “6.25 millimeter caliber” and wearing a “Fairbairn” commando knife on a thong down his back was pretty funny. It’s sad that his career behind enemy lines only left him a USAF 1st looey with nothing better than a GCM.
In his defense, at least he doesn’t pin on any awards that could have lead to prosecution, but he really should dump the Brit wings before a Para de-nuts him.
He probably just likes looking the part of the dashing airman for the ladies in his ballroom dance group.
To above critics:
Just to set the record straight for all naysayers, during the War I wore a GI enlisten man’s uniform, with a single Pfc stripe. With OSS I frequently wore lederhosen. I have been shot at, strafed, bombed, shelled, and once blown up by a sea mine. I will turn 91 next month. After discharge, still a Pfc, I went back to school and earned a degree in foreign affairs, and was commissioned as a 2nd Lt. in MI-Reserve. When the Air Force was later split off from the Army, I opted to trasnfer my civilian job skills in Target Analysis
with the State Dept. to the USAFR. As an Intel. officer,with a bomber wing I was upgraded to 1st Lt. During this service, I was called up to active duty for the Cuban missile crisis, and stationed at Homestead AFB, the prime nuclear targed for Cuba. I am proud of our country and of every uniform I have worn serving it, incl. the striped pants in diplomatic service. I have asked to be buried in that uniform.
My dad would have turned 102 this past September 1st; he was a proud veteran.
Thanks to you dad, Mr. Behling and Ms. Chesler for your service. Wish there were more folks of integrity around here these days; how badly our country needs ‘em.
A fair number of OSS agents were inserted by parachuting from British aircraft, since they had the experience of navigating at night over Europe whereas the US didn’t have the pilots at that time. For range bombers in particular were used. Egress was different than from the side door of a cargo aircraft. They didn’t use static lines, and you had to hold your body in such a manner and jump verticaly into the bomb bay, went out quickly, and that you didn’t whack your self going out the rather narrow bomb bay opening. Do it wrong, hit your head on the edge of the bay, or get tumbled at the low altitude, and you died. This happened to some Brit agents early on. So it was arranged that the OSS agents were trained by the Brits.
For me the sight of the British jump badge is a confirmation.
The uniform and decorations displayed impress me as just the kind of outfit a real spook would dream up. Me? I was a grunt who got PHed into the Two Shop and proceeded to wear out 16 brand-new waterboards as a sucessful Niner Six Charlie. The reports on how the info was collected and how the hydroelectric data was analyzed have ring to truth to me.
BTW there was a Fairbairn knife. It was often issued to “commandos” and sometimes referred to by that name. Misnaming the 25ACP as 6.25 instead of 6.5 and mistaking that for the 7.65 or 32ACP is the type of mistake non-gun nuts often make or which comes as a result of “senior moments”.
Would like to get hands on gentleman’s new manuscript.
There is a Jack Behling on Facebook, similar to the one pictured in the article, but this one really looks late 80s or even 90.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Jack-Behling/1289970760
OSS Files in the Internet, apparently declassified from US archives, show a John Behling, Pfc, bottom of page 29, Serial # 7053693
http://www.archives.gov/iwg/declassified-records/rg-226-oss/personnel-database.pdf
Very interestig read.
The movies and TV do promote a lot of myths about the espionage and war in general.
The spy show I enjoy these days is “Burn Notice”
A movie I always found fasciating is called “Decision Before Dawn” (1951)