Peter J. Ortiz may be the most remarkable American you’ve never heard of.
A Marine officer, OSS operative, and veteran of the French Foreign Legion, Ortiz led one of the most extraordinary military careers of World War II. Captured by the Germans more than once, he repeatedly escaped, returned to the fight, and eventually parachuted into occupied France to organize Resistance fighters, rescue downed Allied airmen, gather intelligence, and carry out sabotage missions behind enemy lines. His exploits became the stuff of legend, yet today his story remains surprisingly little known.
Join us as we talk with historian and former CIA officer Nicholas Reynolds and award-winning journalist Katie S. Sanders, authors of Ortiz’s War: The Allies’ Secret Weapon Against the Nazis in France, a new biography that reconstructs the life of this remarkable Marine and OSS officer from American and French archives. Along the way we’ll discuss the wartime OSS, the French Resistance, intelligence operations in occupied Europe, and the challenges of separating fact from myth when writing about someone whose life often seems almost too extraordinary to believe.
Nicholas Reynolds is the author of several acclaimed books on intelligence and World War II, including Writer, Sailor, Soldier, Spy and Need to Know. Katie Sanders is a journalist drawn to World War II stories about resistance and intergenerational connection. Together they have produced what is likely to become the definitive account of Peter Ortiz’s life.
We hope you’ll join us for what should be an engaging conversation about one of the most fascinating—and overlooked—figures of World War II.
