The OSS Society

Our award-winning short documentary, “Filming Under Fire: John Ford’s OSS Field Photo Branch,” will be shown at the Newport Beach Film Festival as one of its “Art, Architecture, and Design” documentaries on Monday, October 21, 2024, at 3:30 p.m., at The Lot 7, Newport Beach, CA. Here’s a link to the trailer: https://lnkd.in/eJrMDu-W

Our award winning short documentary, “Filming Under Fire: John Ford's OSS Field Photo Branch" was just selected by the prestigious Hamptons Doc Fest - one of only 30 films selected. Watch the trailer: https://lnkd.in/eJrMDu-W

OSS was disbanded OTD 1945 pursuant to an executive order signed by President Truman. J. Edgar Hoover rejoiced proving Gen. Donovan was right when he said that he had greater enemies in Washington than Hitler had in Europe.

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We are very grateful to the United States Marine Corps for honoring the UNION mission, the legendary OSS veteran Col. Peter Ortiz, and all the Marines who served heroically in OSS. When OSS received a Congressional Gold Medal - Congress's highest civilian honor - in 2018, we inscribed the name of the UNION mission on it.

Today marks the anniversary of OSS founder General William Donovan’s 1945 farewell address to OSS personnel: “We have come to the end of an unusual experiment. This experiment was to determine whether a group of Americans constituting a cross-section of racial origins, abilities, temperaments, and talents could meet and risk encounters with long-established and well-trained enemy organizations. How well that experiment has succeeded is measured by your accomplishments and by the recognition of your achievements.” “You should feel deeply gratified by President Truman’s expression of the purpose of basing a coordinated intelligence service upon the techniques and resources that you have initiated and developed.” “This could not have been done if you were not willing to fuse yourself into a team - a team that was made up not only of scholars and research experts and of the active units in operations and intelligence who engaged the enemy in direct encounter, but also of the great numbers of our organization who drove our motor vehicles, kept our records and documents and performed those other innumerable duties of administrative services without which no organization can succeed and which, because well done with us, made our activities that much more effective.” “When I speak of your achievements that does not mean that we did not make mistakes. We were not afraid to make mistakes because we were not afraid to try things that had not been tried before. All of us would like to think that we could have done a better job. But all of you must know that whatever the errors or failures, you have done an honest and self-respecting job. But more than that, because there existed in this organization a sense of solidarity, you must also have the conviction that this agency, in which you played a part, was an effective force.” “Within a few days each one of us will be going on to new tasks, whether in civilian life of governmental work. You can go with the assurance that you have made a beginning by showing the people of America that only be decisions of national policy based upon accurate information can we have the chance of a peace that will endure.”

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The OSS Society’s William J. Donovan Award Dinner, the preeminent annual gathering of the US intelligence and special operations communities, will be held in Washington, DC, on October 19, 2024. The OSS Society will honor some of our nation’s greatest unsung heroes who have served at the “tip of the spear” as our nation’s first line of defense; commemorate the 80th anniversaries of D-Day and the liberation of Paris; and the 75th anniversary of NATO’s founding. The evening's gourmet meal will be a tribute to OSS veteran and the “French Chef” Julia Child. You do not want to miss what Washington Post columnist David Ignatius described as a “wonderful celebration of our country at its best.” If you or your company are interested in being a sponsor of this event, please contact The OSS Society at [email protected]. Individual tickets can be purchased online at https://lnkd.in/eAH8g2PA.

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