Over the past 20 years he has interviewed 4,000, 5,000 veterans as part of americas wars from world war i afghanistan specializing in Untold Stories that read like novels. Please welcome patrick odonnell. [applause] it is really a pleasure and honor to be here. The beginning of my book tour, just came out this week. As jim said i have interviewed 5,000 world war ii veteran, spent an entire lifetime studying world war ii and the stories i will tell you tonight or today is an untold story. Most interesting story i have never come across in all the years i have been on this earth. The story begins right here in washington d. C. Only a few blocks away, is november 17th, 1942, and it is newly built, only been there since 1933 and is host for president s and galas and Everything Else but that night in 1942 the doors of the pool were barred by armed guards and tested something that was unique. This was the precursor of scuba and the beginning of the navy seals begins in that pool only a few blocks from this location right now. That day it is an eclectic group, motley group of individuals that form the first seals, and that evening a dentist from hollywood, calif. Named jack taylor straps on a repeater, the first scuba gear and starts to go into the pool. Taylor is an extraordinary individual. He travels halfway around the world by himself, sales yachts, flies planes, even prior to the board dug his way out of a gold mine after being buried alive. This is not your average dentist. Joining him is a young medical student named christian lambertson who sneaks away from the university of pennsylvania. It is developing the first scuba gear and reprieve there. Tested in the full and is a success. Joining them is an unusual person, british Liaison Officer in washington d. C. He is the commander, First World War i veteran, really extraordinary. He is able to take an it and turn it into reality and that is what they do. It is a race against time. In 1942 the United States doesnt have special Operations Forces or intelligence agencies. Everything was based on cold war spanishamerican war mentality. This is a time when gentlemen didnt read gentlemens nail. Special operations didnt exist. Was all born in many ways in the mind of one individual who had a vision, general william donovan, wild bill donovan. He was appointed chief of the o s s. This was a time when american intelligence, nothing went to the president. The state department had some activities for intelligence gathering but the coordinator for information would collate that and put it into one package for the president. Didnt complete the work that way but the o s s was dynamic and pioneering. They found renaissance men and that is what this book is about, they did extraordinary things overnight. They had to build the first navy seals and the First Washington area that you are a part of was turned into spy and specialized Training Ground. Congressional country club, the fairways, explosives, combat, knife fighting was conducted there by special operations groups. This group was called but maritime unit but they didnt have a spy base at the time so they had to make it over night and what is quite interesting, a bunch of weeds, there are a few remains of buildings, is directly across from quantico, virginia. That is where they began training these guys. There was no money at all. They just had an idea, a vision. There wasnt a submarine available so what did they do . They rented a rodding cabin cruiser and made it a submarine. They used their read breather in the potomac, that is where the training began, it was unbelievable the capabilities they developed, the equipment for instance, the first miniature submarine, the Sleeping Beauty, they created these devices overnight. As time went on they had to develop all of this equipment. Not only did Sleeping Beauty come about but they developed parachute operations, combining seaborne operations with airborne populations. No one was combining all these things together and it was these sorts of extraordinary individuals that were spurred on by something several months earlier that occurred. In alexandria harbor in december of 1941, six italians writing human submersibles, cumin torpedos effectively, destroyed two british battleships in alexandria. They sunk the man changed the balance of power in the Eastern Mediterranean overnight. This created an underwater arms race with all the worlds powers trying to catch up. Donovan assigned taylor and a group of men to sort of solve this problem. They worked, area becomes into effect and it is from there, that things work of janelle. The entire Washington Area is a Training Ground and taylor is not a chair board officer. He is a man of action and wants to go overseas and is host 43, he gets assigned, demands to be assigned to us based in alexandria, egypt. He is one man that goes overseas by himself and set up an entire arianna and that is what he does. He is a lowly captain at the time but he commandeers all of these small boats which infiltrate the entire Eastern Mediterranean. This is the timeframe of the guns of navarrone if you have seen that movie, the germans at a time dominate the Eastern Mediterranean. The british are operating on a shoestring along with americans and they occupied several islands. The germans counterattacked with parachute operations and take over these islands and is quite interesting. Taylor infiltrates inside the islands delivering critical supplies and rescuing men. I spent ten years researching this story. 10,000 documents and inside those documents are extraordinary stories. Then he coordinates the arch bishop, there is an incredible story, this book is rich with characters. Interesting characters that are all unique. One of those people for instance is Sterling Hayden, famous movie actor. If you have ever seen dr. Strangelove, this is general jack rapper. Taylor in world war ii is an amazing individual. He changes his name to John Hamilton to change his identity to some degree but when he goes to egypt, you look like a famous football player. Anyway, in alexandria, it is an oddly chilling time but taylor and Sterling Hayden worked together with another guy, many of the men in this book were Close Friends of mine. Theres only one living now but i have ever interviewed but one of those individuals was a guy named ladysmith. He was in virginia and after the war, he was an accountant, he launched one of the most extraordinary spy missions in world war ii. After the escapades in alexandria the war shifted to italy and taylor and these men wanted to be part of the action. One of the First Missions they had was to rescued 25 nurses that crash landed behind enemy lines in a c 47 in albania. In albania at the time was occupied by the germans. Also a civil war, there were multiple insurgencies going on and somehow these guys had to get these nurses out and they sent in late taylor, lloyd smith who is an unassuming guy. I will never forget, he pulled out this free 57 magnum, put it on the table, i won this in a poker game before the mission and that is what i was armed with when i went in behind the lines and that is what this College Wrestler from pennsylvania with hardly any understanding of the culture of albania did, with the he navigated hundreds of miles and the teams are unique. For instance, for decades before Seal Team Six conducts red cell exercises these guys infiltrate gitmo. They go through all of the nets, all of the underwater obstacles, mines, etc. , are fully armed, fully armed, and the base is fully armed. Those are some of the things that are sort of developing. These teams are then sent overseas. They conduct the First Submarine based seal team exercise. They do a reconnaissance on a small japanese island. These missions kind of go forward. Many of them are forgot and stories. I cant the archives and found missions in burma, sumatra where the os as was not necessarily a politically correct acts it. For instance, the native sumatrans were sometimes basically nazi germany without a lifeline. Somehow they maneuvered and worked their way around in safe houses that the team members at the time of the dupont mission, mission, had they had relatives in the area and stayed within the safe houses. Very sort of an eclectic group. One guy was a philanderer with the partial for womanizing with the local german population. In the end that is what caps off the gestapo to the dupont team. They moved around for over two months behind the lines and gather really good intelligence. And they gestapo surrounds a barn that the men are staying in. They come in with mp 40 machine pistols and jam it in the ribs of the team members and ask who taylor is. He says he is the captain. And then they start to beat him. As this is going on in italy there is an interesting dynamic occurring. As i mentioned earlier, this unit, the italian navy, its one of the most successful units. Units. I think to british battleships in alexandria, they conduct a number of operations that are highly successful, sink a large portion of allied tonnage of chips. Italy in 1943 changes sides, and the oss is out of the box and dynamic thinkers they say, why not not take these assets and bring them into the fold . And that is exactly what they did. And these men, taylor was initially part of organizing and negotiating. They conduct special Operations Missions behind the lines and conduct these missions by gathering intelligence. It is fascinating. They they capture highvalue targets, conduct assassinations. One of their greatest was that italy at the time was made up of belts of german fortifications. Fortifications. They captured were brought back an italian engineer that had designed the gothic line, and they knew every single bunker, machine gun nest, mortar position, mortar position, artillery position. They brought the engineer back, and this went through to one of the breakthroughs the british army had in that sector. They conducted countless missions, blowing up trains and railroad tracks. All of these things are sort of happening at the same time as taylor is now captured by the gestapo, and it is, i think, you know, i mentioned that he survived digging out of a gold mine, but it is here that he has the ultimate survival story. He is put into a concentration camp. And the camp itself is savage. There is no food. Men have men have to beat each other for a crumb of bread. Taylor is assigned to build the crematorium where the bodies are dumped and burned somehow, brick by brick he builds the crematorium. He slowly builds this thing because he knows that any day he is going to be dead. And the germans insist that it is done quicker, quicker. They speed up the clock. Practically clock. Practically every day he is on the death list them up any of the inmates in that camp that we will be executed by the germans. The savagery is unbelievable they have a quarry where their are hundreds of steps, and the inmates are sadistically forced to quarry on their backs massive stones up and down the steps. The germans for germans for fun effectively through these individuals off the steps. If he survives, they survives, they throw them off again. Viciously assaulted and tortured, dogs are forced to stand outside in the cold for 24 hours at a time. Somehow jack taylor survives this entire camp. I think the most extraordinary thing in this story is the day jack taylor , they plan to execute jack taylor the next day, and it is made, 1945. And an Armored Division, and and allied Armored Division crashes through the front gates. And they find this ragged i mean, this was a a man that was initially 185 pounds. Now probably now probably around 120 pounds. As they come through the gate he holds up his dog tags and goes, god bless america. And and if you want to see something really extraordinary, google jack taylor. There is a grainy old film with this exact incident and his own words. As this was all unfolding. After that he says come im jack taylor. I am a naval officer from hollywood, california. This is my first time in the movies. As 1945 goes on, the war is coming to a close. The maritime unit of the oss , these first seals are mothballed along with the rest of the organization. All of the technology, a lot lot of it, is put on shelves think of the Indiana Jones scene with a the large warehouse. Most of this equipment is put in one of those large air forces. Only years after that they resurrect part of it. They bring back some of the individuals. The extraordinary the extraordinary friends that i had, many of these men were Close Friends of mine. Every year john would travel from rhode island to key west, florida and stop at my house in virginia and spend two weeks. My daughter would know him as uncle john. He would dive in key west, swim out to miles, and obtain lobsters and bring them back, and that was his dinner. He would also take his cia pension and save it for cigars and boos at the local dav and hit on hotties at age 91. But this is the kind of these men were living life up until the end. They are renaissance man. I i mean, another character that i did not even mention was a guy by the name of ted moore did, and archaeologists that found the lost temple of the monkey god in honduras. He could he could have been the character from Indiana Jones easily. With taylor and hayden in italy and even conducts his own mission in china. But the story of the maritime unit is an interesting one. For me, it was really an honor to be able to sort of tell some of the stories of my friends and the men that i found in the lost files of the national archives. So with that, i would like to take your questions. Yes, sir. I want to thank you very much for your great presentation today. Wonderful to here your recounting of the stories. Chris lamb was a personal friend of mine for many years. What led you to have an interest in this discipline more so than anything else please . For me, the interest in World War Ii History began when i was about four. I started collecting a series of magazines, the history of the second world war. Every week i would go out with my father and we would buy a new addition. It was the entire history of the war. And that was the genesis of it. Then i started interviewing the men themselves. About 5,000 interviews with special operators from world war ii as well as special operators, special forces, special Operations Forces, everything from the marine raiders to the rangers of dog company at. To hock to the First Special service for us, but for me the most Interesting Group that i ever interviewed with the men and women of the oss because they had maintained their vows of silence. A very difficult group to interview. And it was through years of research. I have written written four books on the oss. Now those individuals entrusted me with their story, and that is the thing that i think runs across all of my books, that trust. That that is not something that is easily obtained with the marines that i was with in falluja who trusted me with their stories to these oss veterans. Questions, anyone . [inaudible question] speaking in alabama. [inaudible question] well, i would not necessarily say that. I would say that ten years ago to this day i was in the battle of falluja, and that was a very seminal event in my life. Last week we went to an Camp Pendleton and i met men that i had not seen in ten years, and that was a powerful experience. We hiked up this long ridgeline, and we memorialized the 57 men that were killed in action in 31 alone, and then there was also many men who had taken their lives since the war. There was a great story that npr did yesterday on that. It was written in this book which was about the platoon that i was in. [applauding] thank you. [inaudible question] i have. Several. I i have had two of my books made into a film. A true story behind in glorious bastards. And then there have been several documentaries. For instance, we were one. They reenacted the ambush was involved in. I wreenacted the ambush was involved in. I was almost killed by chechens. They interviewed the men and reenacted the entire ambush. One of my favorite books is called give me tomorrow on George Company 31, the same unit in falluja, but in korea. When i came back to Camp Pendleton i was greeted by these old senior marines who said, who are you . Well, combat historian. We were George Company 31. We held a key hill in the chosen reservoir against an entire chinese harassment. That is pretty amazing. How did they do that . They said, come to our reunion. For me it is all kind of like stories seem to find me. Like i said, i have have not worked in 15 years. It has been my passion, being able to tell and record the stories of world war ii veterans. Thank you very much. One final, final question. Could you talk a bit about the battle. I have always found that fascinating. What they were up against. We have had several guys. This story is in a book called we were one. I have written ten books. It is probably the most special. I was there. Falluja was very much like the pacific war. The positions were bunkered, the enemy was determined, in some cases suicidal. They were their to kill americans, and what we found on the ground were syringes, liquid adrenaline these guys were shooting themselves up with. You can sort of picture a pcp user, someone that is fearless and also can sustain a large amount of damage. We saw we saw insurgents that had sustained 14 gunshot wounds to there body and they continue to fight. Entire buildings collapse on individuals, and they continue to fight. It was a very it was a battle that changed many of our lives, and lives, and i will just say that in many ways there are lessons that can be learned in terms not necessarily of the battle itself, but afterwards with the awakening. In many ways, that is the key to success moving forward. Thank you. [applauding] youre watching book tv, television for serious readers. You can watch any program you see here online at booktv. Org. A look a look at the current top ten bestselling nonfiction books. Topping the list former president george w. Bush profiles his father