Pierre (Peter) Julien Ortiz
Colonel, U.S. Marine Corps,OSS
Pierre (Peter) Julien Ortiz was born on 5 July 1913 in New York City, NY. His father was French with a strong line of Spanish forebears, and his mother was American.
Ortiz was educated at the University of Grenoble in France and he spoke ten languages including Spanish, French, German and Arabic. At the age of 19, Peter joined the French Foreign Legion on 1 February 1932, for five years' service in North Africa. His first assignment was to the Legion's training camp at Sidi Bel-Abbes, Algeria and later, he also served in Morocco. Ortiz was promoted to Corporal in 1933 and to Sergeant in 1935. After being made an acting Lieutenant, he was offered a commission as a Second Lieutenant if he would re-enlist. However, when his enlistment expired in 1937, he went to Hollywood, CA, to serve as a technical advisor for war films.
When the U.S remained neutral after World War II was underway in Europe, in October 1939 Ortiz reenlisted in the French Foreign Legion with the rank of Sergeant. In May 1940, he received a battlefield commission. During the 1940 Battle of France, Lieutenant Ortiz was wounded while blowing up a fuel dump and captured as a prisoner of war by the Germans. After 15 months as a POW, he managed to escape in October 1941. He reached the United States by way of Lisbon on 8 December, and was interrogated by Army and Navy intelligence officers, who promised a commission. However, it didn't come through immediately.
On 22 June 1942, Ortiz enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps. Due to his prior military training and experience, forty days later he was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant and, on 3 December, skipping the rank of First Lieutenant, Ortiz was promoted to Captain. Due to his extensive knowledge of the region, he was sent to Tangier, Morocco, where he was assigned duty as Assistant Naval Attaché as a cover for his actual mission: conducting reconnaissance behind enemy lines in Tunisia for the Office of Strategic Services (OSS). Ortiz was seriously wounded in the right hand in an encounter with a German patrol during a night mission and Major General William J. Donovan, Director of the Office of Strategic Services, forwarded to the Commandant of the Marine Corps a message from Algiers which read, "While on reconnaissance on the Tunisian front, Captain Peter Ortiz, U.S.M.C.R. was severely wounded in the right hand while engaged in a personal encounter with a German patrol. He dispersed the patrol with grenades. Captain Ortiz is making good recovery in hospital at Algiers."
In April 1943, Ortiz was returned to Washington, DC, to recover from his wound. In May, he was assigned to the Naval Command, OSS. In July, he flew to London for further assignment to missions in France. On the moonless night of 6 January 1944, Ortiz was part of a three-man mission, codenamed Union, that included Colonel Pierre Fourcaud of the French Secret Service and Colonel H.H.A. Thackwaite from the British Special Operations Executive (SOE), dropped by parachute into the Haute-Savoie region of German-occupied France. Their mission was to evaluate the military capabilities of the resistance units reported active in the Alpine region. Per standard SOE practice, they wore civilian clothes, but carried their uniforms with them. Once they linked up with the maquis on the ground, they identified themselves as military men on a military mission. Accordingly, they were the first Allied officers to appear in uniform in France since 1940. Thackwaite later wrote that "Ortiz, who knew not fear, did not hesitate to wear his U.S. Marine captain's uniform in town and country alike; this cheered the French but alerted the Germans and the mission was constantly on the move." [Ortiz always thought that Thackwaite's statement that he "knew not fear," was absolutely ridiculous. He said that considering all that he had been through with the French Foreign Legion, and now with the OSS, of course he knew fear. However, the following does make one wonder.] As Lieutenant Colonel Robert Mattingly wrote in his prize-winning monograph, Herringbone Cloak--GI Dagger: Marines of the OSS: "It might be reasonable to suppose that the team remained hidden in the high country, but this was not the case. Ortiz in particular was fond of going straight into the German-occupied towns. On one occasion, he strolled into a cafe dressed in a long cape. Several Germans were drinking and cursing the maquis. One mentioned the fate which would befall the filthy American swine when he was caught. (The Nazis apparently knew of Ortiz' existence in the area with the maquis.) This proved a great mistake. Captain Ortiz threw back the cape revealing his Marine uniform. In each hand he held a .45 automatic. When the shooting stopped, there were fewer Nazis to plan his capture and Ortiz was gone into the night."
Ortiz also had a talent for stealing Gestapo vehicles from local motor pools. His citation for the British award making him a Member of the Most Honourable Order of the British Empire reads in part:
"For four months this officer assisted in the organization of the maquis in a most difficult department where members were in constant danger of attack...he ran great risks in looking after four RAF officers who had been brought down in the neighborhood, and accompanied them to the Spanish border (at the Pyrenees). In the course of his efforts to obtain the release of these officers, he raided a German military garage and took ten Gestapo motors which he used frequently...he procured a Gestapo pass for his own use in spite of the fact that he was well known to the enemy...." Ortiz was awarded the Navy Cross for his "heroic leadership and astuteness in planning and executing the hazardous forays of the mission."
On 1 August 1944, Major Ortiz parachuted back into France as commander of the mission codenamed Union II. This was a new type of OSS mission, an Operational Group made up of heavily armed contingents which were tasked with direct action against the Germans. They were not only to conduct sabotage, but were to also seize key installations to prevent retreating German units from destroying them. Team members were always in uniform. Accompanying Ortiz on this mission were Army Air Forces Captain Francis Coolidge, Gunnery Sergeant Robert La Salle, Sergeants Charles Perry, John P. Bodnar, Frederick J. Brunner, and Jack R. Risler, all Marines, and a Free French officer, Joseph Arcelin, who carried false papers identifying him as a Marine. This was a daylight drop near the town of les Saises in the Haute Savoie region. In addition to the team, a large supply of weapons and ammunition and other supplies in 864 containers for the French Bulle Battalion operating in the region were also dropped. The mission began badly, for Perry's steel parachute cable snapped, and he was dead in the drop zone. His comrades buried him with military honors.
On 16 August, Major Ortiz and some of his team members were captured by the Germans (Ortiz for the second time during WWII). They were taken to the naval POW camp Marlag/Milag Nord, located in the small German village of Westertimke, outside Bremen. On 10 April 1945, the camp commandant ordered all POWs to prepare to leave within three hours. The column left with such haste that a number of the prisoners were left behind. Not Ortiz though, for special watch was kept over him. Enroute, the column was attacked by diving Spitfires, whereupon Ortiz and three other prisoners made for a nearby wooded area, and waited for the column to continue on, which it did, leaving him and his fellows behind, unnoticed. Allied progress was slow, and the escapees were not rescued as quickly as they thought they would be. The escapees were in bad physical shape. On the tenth day, the four men decided it might be better to live in their old huts than to starve to death outside. They walked back into the camp, no commotion was raised by the guards, and the remaining POWs gave them a rousing welcome. Ortiz later reported: "We spent ten days hiding, roving at night, blundering into enemy positions hoping to find our way into British lines. Luck was with us. Once we were discovered but managed to get away, and several other times we narrowly escaped detection...By the seventh night, we had returned near our camp. I made a reconnaissance of Marlag/Milag Nord....There seemed to be only a token guard and prisoners of war appeared to have assumed virtual control of the compounds." The camp was liberated on 29 April 1945. Major Ortiz was awarded his second Navy Cross for his contributions to the success of the mission.
After the war ended, Ortiz remained in the Marine Reserve, where he rose to the rank of Colonel upon his retirement in March 1955. In April 1954, Ortiz wrote a letter to the Commandant, volunteering to return to active duty to serve as a Marine observer in Indochina. However, the Marine Corps did not accept his request because "current military policies will not permit the assignment requested."
Ortiz retired in March 1955 and was promoted to Colonel on the retired list for having been decorated in combat.
U.S. Medals, Awards & Badges:
Navy Cross with Gold Star Legion of Merit with Valor Device
Other Military Awards:
Order of the British Empire Croix de Guerre (5 Awards) Médaille des Blesses Médaille des Évadés Médaille Coloniale
Ortiz was also made a Chevalier of the Légion d'honneur by the French. He was the most highly decorated member of the OSS.
Honors:
In August 1994, Centron, France held a ceremony in which the town center was renamed "Place Colonel Peter Ortiz."
Post-Military Life:
In civilian life, Ortiz became an actor and a technical advisor. He appeared in a number of films, several with famous Director John Ford, including Rio Grande, in which he played "Captain St. Jacques." Several of his appearances were uncredited. According to his son, Marine Lieutenant Colonel Peter J. Ortiz, Jr., "My father was an awful actor but he had great fun appearing in movies". Even Ortiz himself said that he wasn't the greatest of actors, and that he never really liked seeing the movies he was in.
At least two Hollywood films were based upon his personal exploits: 13 Rue Madeleine (1947) and Operation Secret (1952).
Death and Burial:
Colonel Pierre (Peter) Julien Ortiz died of cancer on 16 May 1988 in the Veterans Medical Center at Prescott, AZ. He is buried at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington. Arlington County, VA, in Section 59, Site 1269. He was buried with full military honors with military representatives of the British and French governments present.
Source: Military hall of Honor