WWII secret interrogators break their silence

The Washnington Post ^ | August 20, 2006 | Petula Dvorak

[libstripper]

For more than 60 years, they kept their military secrets locked deep inside and lived quiet lives as account executives, college professors, business consultants and the like.

The brotherhood of P.O. Box 1142 enjoyed no homecoming parades, no VFW reunions, no embroidered ball caps and no regaling of wartime stories to grandchildren sitting on their knees.

Almost no one, not even their wives, in many cases, knew the place in history held by the men of Fort Hunt, alluded to during World War II only by a mailing address that was its code name.

[libstripper]

How they did it the right way under FDR in WWII.

[SAMWolf]

I wonder if they fed the prisoners only ethnic German food and gave them copies of Mein Kampf, printed in German, to read in their free time.

[AmericaUnited]

These were real interrogators. I always wondered why there was a nylon stocking shortage/rationing during WWII. Now we know :)

[Riley]

I've been to what used to be Fort Hunt. It's a park now. Lots of gun emplacements from the Spanish-American War, IIRC.

[Sgt_Schultze]

Clearly FDR's violation of the Geneva Accords demonstrate he was indeed, a war criminal. When the dems come for W regarding Abu Garibe's harsh underwear torture, Ranger Bies' account of FDR's violations will allow Republicans to include him for historical context.

[marktwain]

My friend, George (Tex) Ferguson, was reportedly the 2nd most decorated American in WWII. He wrote up his memoirs in the 70's and sent them off to the Army and Navy for permission the publish. The Navy gave permission nearly immediately; the Army, never, and kept the manuscript. I doubt if it still exists. What a tragedy.

He was in charge of the "Bushmaster", a unit that trained in Panama and conducted behind the lines intelligence gathering operations on the Pacific Islands occupied by the Japanese. Later, he was assigned to the European theater in time for the D-Day invasion.

He was a most remarkable man.

[marktwain]

Oops. Should be "Bushmasters" not Bushmaster.

[OriginalIntent]

Real good points.

During WW2 the far-left Constitutional revisionists had not yet completely infiltrated the law schools and the judicial branch with their incredible lying.

Now that traitors, like the ACLU, have been able to illegally use judges to rewrite the Constitution (fraud), we have pressure to treat "terrorist" prisoners as if they were U.S. citizens. So the only complaints the ACLU types have are when murdering terrorists don't get their way.

[Gritty]

[hellbender]

"So hush-hush was their work for P.O. Box 1142 that the men recruited for it were ordered to never mention it. To this day, some have refused to speak to the park ranger gathering their oral histories, believing that the oath they took more than 60 years ago can never be broken."

Too bad such honor and integrity are hard to find today. Needless to say, these men did not run to the Slimes and the ComPost to leak stories about the "violations of the Geneva Convention."

[OriginalIntent]

...operations at Fort Hunt were "not exactly legal" .

The ACLU needs to sue these old interogators and build a monument condemning the U.S. for winning WW2.

The ACLU's next move should be to try demonize the entire WW2 generation and get some liberal judges to declare our victory as unconstitutional, requiring reparations.

But, then again, since the ACLU has already been demonizing the first 200 years of America (America has always been evil according to the left), I guess they already have the WW2 generation covered.

[zeugma]

Great story. Thanks for posting.  You have to wonder how much history we've lost access to because of government secrecy and time.  

 

[Enchante]

My, My .... I guess the ACLU and John Conyers will have to demand that FDR and Truman both be impeached retroactively. Not exactly in line with the Geneva Conventions, huh? Amazing that this even appeared in WaPo, but few in MSM or Demagogic Party will notice.

[libstripper]

Is there any chance he either kept a copy or sent them a copy while keeping the original? Since he wrote his memoirs in the 70s, they were definitely done in hard copy on a typewriter instead of a PC, meaning he might have lost the only copy that ever existed.

[GreyFriar]

Modern 'civil liberties' fanatics are taking this to their own extreme. The interrogation of prisoners of war enroute to a PoW camp was routine for both the Allies and the Axis during WWII. Look at the stories of US Army Air Force personnel who were shot down over Germany, after they were captured nearly all went to one of several interrogation centers before they went to a Stalag where they were processed and the Red Cross was notified. Please note that the Japanese were not signatories to the Geneva Convention and Red Cross agreements.

ACLU types will want to make all sorts of claims (without proof) that dastardly things were done, but the main question is "why" when the folks had been captured after their U-boat was sunk or in the combat zone and they had no really current information. Remember that was during a period with uniformed armies and wanted to conquer countries and people, not stateless terrorists who want to convert the world to Islam and give people the choice of "convert or die." Just ask the two Fox newsmen who were released.

[barefoot bob]

George tex ferguson was my great great uncle. I am trying to learn more about him.

[barefoot bob]

I would like to speak with you about my great uncle
my email is teamcox@hotmail.com

[Tezzlha]

Tex was my now ex-Grandfather in law, and is my son's Great Grandfather, he was also my Father's (U.S. Custom's Service) hand to hand and special weapons instructor for the Department of the Treasury years ago. I believe he handled most of the local Federal Agencies training including the D.E.A., Customs, Border Patrol, and A.T.F. I had the pleasure of spending a few holiday dinners with Tex and his wife and enjoyed the hours of exciting war time combat stories. I have also had the opportunity to spend a few dinners at his home in Yuma, Arizona and saw his highly impressive medals and awards cabinet, which included one of his fingers which he retrieved and placed into his pocket during a beach landing when it was detached by an incoming bullet had been hit numerous times and his entire abdomen was mostly scare tissue from major wounds. I don't recall the exact amount of Purple Hearts he received but I think it was between 5 and 9. He had several other awards and crosses for commendable service and heroic activities he had performed while in combat. He always kept his Military Dress Uniform, which had one sleeve almost completely covered in service stripes, perfectly cleaned, always prepared, to include spit shined boots in a small area of his home devoted to his military career was always prepared for combat until the day he died. I remember the first time I actually met him (I married his only Grand daughter so yes I was scared shitless as I walked to his front door after hearing so much about this legendary soldier) Tex answered the door, he was a larger man standing about 6'7" and quite strong as he asked me who I was and reached out his hand, as I answered I shook hands with Tex and remember feeling the bones in hand almost crumbling and just before they were going to crack he released and politely welcomed me into his home with a joking smile, evidently I must have instinctively squeezed back to save my hand from being broken and he made some sort of comment regarding the importance of a firm handshake. He was a very talkative guy but for the most part was all about his business; killing people. I remember my Father would talk about some guy everyone called “Tex” years before when I was in High School. My dad whom was a high grade U.S. Customs Officer with 30+ years service and a Brigadier General in the U.S. Army Reserves had been a student of Tex Ferguson in hand to hand and weapons tactic training which they would partially conduct at the shooting range outside Yuma-he would tell me stories about this large man that has killed and could kill anyone with pretty much any metallic object from 30 feet distance, telling me that in a demonstration Tex would bury a standard screw drive into a wood post-hitting the same spot as he walked around talking, he also tied my Dad into a knot when demonstrating the tactics used for taking down an adversary, my Dad was a very strong man, lifted a lot of weights (Bench 250+) five foot seven inches tall; and about 235 lbs. I had never heard my Dad talk about anyone ever in his life like he talked about Tex Ferguson. Years later when I married into his family and I informed my dad about our new family members, he was surprised to hear that Tex was now a family member, then he basically said that there are few humans on this planet that were put here to kill, and could not be killed in combat, Tex was without a doubt one of those humans. Tex was also a former Texas Ranger before his military career. My son read his obituary to the large crowd during his burial ceremony. He was featured in the local newspaper (Yuma Daily Sun) as he read to the highly decorated and large crowd of friends, family and soldiers at his funeral. He was the highest ranked enlisted soldier to be alive until his death in 1998-he was Sergeant of the Army, he also officially accepted the commission of the M-14 by the U.S. Army.