John "Frenchy" Grombach - AMERICAN HERO?
Where does one begin the story of an era? First, I'll introduce the characters. Then the times. The politics. So when they all come together you'll know how they did.
Let me just say here that due to the nature of blogs it is best if you start at the beginning. In our case March 29 of 2005. This is easy to do, just go the calendar and click on that day and read up! All contents here except when noted are Copyright (c) 2005 by Michael Flores. It is ok to link to here, and spread the word on this project.
Let's start with 2001. A barn in Virginia. Boxes are found and opened to determine what is in them.
To the surprise of the people going through the boxes there is information about OSS, our spy group in World War 2. Then CIA documents. Then to the shock of those going through the boxes, information on a secret agency within CIA.
Virginia is also CIA headquarters and a phone call is made to the agency. These documents have been found. The receptionist is baffled. Something about CIA documents and a secret group within CIA. Some agents are dispatched. To their surprise, the documents are real. Immediately the family is sworn to secrecy and baffled CIA agents cart out the boxes of Intel history. No press had been called. Only the family and the CIA agents know.
The documents are real. But no history in CIA exists of a group called THE POND. What are these papers? Older, retired agents are contacted. They inform the agency that The Pond did exist. It's history was deliberately erased from the records. A group that started in OSS and when that agency was transformed into CIA played a role in both hidden until now. Even though the military at the time and most agents knew nothing about it, the Pond was in charge of finding spies within the military and government. The OSS had become known as the Oh So Social agency under wild man William Donovan ( a cool character himself, more on him coming) and some in Washington wished we had set up the agency more like the British Intel groups. So The Pond became it. The Pond as far as we know, was America's only truly secret Intel organization.
Jean Grombach was a Frenchman who believed deeply in America. He became a United States citizen and went to West Point believing as many did in those days that becoming a soldier was the way to thank the country for citizenship. He loved to work hard and was an athletic star. But he also liked to party hard and had many demerits which kept him from getting a military commission.
There is a type of career soldier that has always existed in our military. The men and women who know how or are willing to stretch the rubber band of military rules until they got their way. Grombach was like that. He got a military commission anyway, and was sent to the Panama Canal zone. This was apparently when he first became involved in Intel work (spying to the public). He left the military and joined the National Guard. In 1929 he worked for CBS radio, and developed several radio shows. However he was still in Intel, as in 1937 we discover that he has worked on a top secret project for State Department. In 1940 an article appears in INFANTRY JOURNAL on the importance of radio in warfare, and how radio can be used to send messages that the public wouldn't get.
Here we are on the second post, and we have discovered a secret group within CIA, and met our first major player in this incredible story.
You have not read anything yet!
Next post: Joseph McCarthy
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