Aaron Bank
| Aaron Bank | |
|---|---|
| Born |
November 23, 1902 New York City |
| Died | April 1, 2004 (aged 101) Dana Point, California |
| Place of burial | Riverside National Cemetery |
| Allegiance |
 United States
|
| Service/branch | United States Army |
| Years of service | 1942–1958 |
| Rank | Colonel |
| Commands held | 10th Special Forces Group |
| Battles/wars | World War II |
Colonel Aaron Bank (November 23, 1902 – April 1, 2004) was an officer of the United States Army, and the founder of the US Army Special Forces, commonly called "Green Berets". He is also famous for his exploits as an OSS officer during World War II, parachuting into France to coordinate and activate the French Resistance and organizing an operation intended to capture Adolf Hitler. During his retirement years, Bank played a quiet but critical role in warning the nation about the risks of terrorism and modern technology and he is largely responsible for the high level of security at U.S. nuclear power plants since the early 1970s.
As a young man, Bank worked as chief life guard at an upscale resort in Biarritz. His widowed mother taught language (French and German) lessons to earn a living; this explains his unusual fluency in French and German, a skill which had much to do with his later activities as a special operations commander.
He enlisted in the Army on August 19, 1942, then volunteered for special operations work. He was in his late thirties, and thought "too old" for combat, but he was an unusually athletic man and so was accepted into the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) during World War II.
The OSS conducted both espionage operations (SI Branch) and special operations (SO Branch), for sabotage and guerrilla warfare. Bank was assigned to SO Branch, and on July 31, 1944 led the Jedburgh Team PACKARD, parachuting into Lozère Department of France and linking up with French Resistance.
At the time of "Operation Anvil", also known as "Operation Dragoon" (the Allied invasion of Southern France approximately six weeks after the D-Day invasion at Normandy), Bank and his French partisans drove the German forces away from the beachhead ahead of the Allied troops, liberating a number of French towns before the regular forces arrived.
In late 1944 and early 1945, Bank led "Operation Iron Cross," which evolved into a plan to capture or kill Adolf Hitler. The OSS actively recruited German POWs who were opposed to Hitler to form a special forces unit, outfitted with SS uniforms and highly trained in "raid and snatch" techniques. (The OSS found many willing volunteers amongst former German soldiers, primarily former German Communists, who vigorously opposed Hitler, and German Jews who had taken refuge in the Wehrmacht, posing as Gentiles.) This unit was trained as parachute infantry and was intended for insertion into the expected "Alpine Redoubt" on the Austrian/German border, where senior Nazi officials were planning to make their last stand against the advancing Allied armies.
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