America’s First NAVY SEAL was an Orthodontist
FROM THE ARCHIVE (2023): References to current events, governmental administrations, or public policies may not reflect present-day circumstances.
Did you know that America’s first NAVY SEAL was a simple orthodontist from California? Or that a Harvard dropout convinced the OSS to parachute him on a dangerous sabotage mission deep into enemy territory? Join Patrick K. O’Donnell in a wild ride as he unpacks the OSS and history of the early CIA in this 2023 speech brought back from the archive.
“Wild Bill Donovan, the OSS, and the Early CIA”
Patrick K. O’Donnell
Author, Operatives, Spies, and Saboteurs: The Unknown Story of the Men and Women of World War II’s OSS
This speech was delivered in the Robert W. Plaster Free Enterprise Auditorium at Hillsdale College on October 1, 2023 during a Hillsdale College CCA Seminar, “U.S. Intelligence: History and Controversies.”
——————————
Timecodes:
0:00 Sizzle Trailer
1:10 The Wild Story of Howard Chappell
6:36 How the Office of Strategic Services Was Founded
8:25 Inside the OSS Research & Analysis Division
11:29 OSS Spy Gadgets: Pen Pistols, Exploding Coal & Truth Drug
14:19 OSS Psychological Warfare: Operations Sauerkraut & Cornflakes
16:45 OSS Special Operations: Jedburghs & Donovan’s Devils
18:26 OSS Maritime Unit: First SEALs and the Rebreather
22:19 Jack Taylor: Gestapo Capture to Mauthausen Survival
26:26 OSS Spies: How Elizabeth Pack Stole the Vichy French Codes
30:07 Stephen Hall’s Brenner Pass Mission in the Dolomites
33:39 Chappell’s Coffin Plan to Rescue Hall
37:14 Chappell’s White Flag: 4,000 SS Troops Surrender
38:56 Why Personal Agency Matters: Lessons from the OSS
Support Hillsdale College: https://secured.hillsdale.edu/hillsdale/support-hillsdale-college
Visit our website: http://hillsdale.edu
Learn from our online courses: http://online.hillsdale.edu
Read Imprimis: https://imprimis.hillsdale.edu/
Undergraduate programs: https://www.hillsdale.edu/information-for/undergraduate-admissions/
Graduate School of Statesmanship: https://www.hillsdale.edu/academics/graduate-school/
Graduate School of Government: https://dc.hillsdale.edu/School-of-Government/Program-Overview/
Graduate School of Education: https://classicalgrad.hillsdale.edu/
Listen to the Hillsdale College Podcast Network: https://podcast.hillsdale.edu/
——————————
Hillsdale College is an independent institution of higher learning founded in 1844 by men and women “grateful to God for the inestimable blessings” resulting from civil and religious liberty and “believing that the diffusion of learning is essential to the perpetuity of these blessings.” It pursues the stated object of the founders: “to furnish all persons who wish, irrespective of nation, color, or sex, a literary, scientific, [and] theological education” outstanding among American colleges “and to combine with this such moral and social instruction as will best develop the minds and improve the hearts of its pupils.” As a nonsectarian Christian institution, Hillsdale College maintains “by precept and example” the immemorial teachings and practices of the Christian faith.
The College also considers itself a trustee of our Western philosophical and theological inheritance tracing to Athens and Jerusalem, a heritage finding its clearest expression in the American experiment of self-government under law.
By training the young in the liberal arts, Hillsdale College prepares students to become leaders worthy of that legacy. By encouraging the scholarship of its faculty, it contributes to the preservation of that legacy for future generations. By publicly defending that legacy, it enlists the aid of other friends of free civilization and thus secures the conditions of its own survival and independence.