FOR THE LATE

 

 

WILLIAM E. COLBY

An OSS Jedburgh First Lieutenant
who became director of the Central Intelligence Agency.

 

AARON BANK

An OSS Jedburgh First Lieutenant
who became a colonel and the father of Special Forces.

 

WILLIAM R. CORSON

A legendary Marine intelligence officer
whom the KGB hated more than any other U.S. intelligence officer—
and not only because he wrote the definitive work on them.

FOR THE LIVING

 

 

BILLY WAUGH

A legendary Special Forces Command Sergeant Major
who retired and then went on to hunt down the infamous Carlos the Jackal.
Billy could have terminated Osama bin Laden in the early 1990s
but could not get permission to do so.
After fifty years in the business, Billy is still going after the bad guys.

 

RENÉ J. DÉFOURNEAUX

A U.S. Army OSS Second Lieutenant attached to the British SOE
who jumped into Occupied France alone and later
became a legendary U.S. Army counterintelligence officer.

 

When René Défourneaux was twenty, the odds against his living to be old enough to vote were probably 100-1.

As I was writing this book, Colonel David Bennett, USA, notified me that his uncle and my old friend René had passed after long service to our country’s intelligence community, both before and after his retirement.

He died in bed. He was eighty-nine.

Among the many attending his interment at Arlington National Cemetery on 10 May 2010 were the sons of his friend Bill Colby.

René had a thousand stories to tell. My favorite was the one of being decorated in the Pentagon with the Silver Star from the hands of the U.S. Army Chief of Staff.

The citation described his extraordinary skill and great valor in blowing up a bridge in France. René said he had never been anywhere near that bridge, but had taken the medal because he had learned as a second lieutenant never to argue with a four-star general.

 

JOHNNY REITZEL

An Army Special Operations officer
who could have terminated the head terrorist
of the seized cruise ship Achille Lauro but could not get permission to do so.

 

RALPH PETERS

A U.S. Army intelligence officer
who has written the best analysis of our war against terrorists.
and of our enemy that I have ever seen.

AND FOR THE NEW BREED

 

 

MARC L

A senior intelligence officer, despite his youth,
who reminds me of Bill Colby more and more each day.

 

FRANK L

A legendary Defense Intelligence Agency officer
who retired and now follows in Billy Waugh’s footsteps.

 

 

 

 

OUR NATION OWES THESE PATRIOTS A DEBT BEYOND REPAYMENT.