You're Stepping on My Cloak and Dagger

Front Cover
Naval Institute Press, 2004 - Biography & Autobiography - 219 pages
With a sharp eye and wry wit, Roger Hall recounts his experiences as an American Army officer assigned to the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) during World War II. First published in 1957 to critical and popular acclaim, his book has become a cult favorite in intelligence circles. The story follows Hall's experiences from a junior officer fleeing a tedious training assignment in Louisiana to his quirky and rigorous OSS training rituals in the United States, England, and Scotland. Quick to pick up on the skills necessary for behind-the-lines intelligence work, he became an expert instructor. But he was only reluctantly given operational duties because of his reputation as an iconoclast. In his droll story-telling style, Hall describes his first parachute jump in support of the French resistance as a comedy of errors that terminated prematurely. His last assignment in the war zone came when William Colby appointed him section head of an operations group that made its way on foot through Sweden. Called one of the funniest and most perceptive works ever written about life in the OSS, the book includes a wealth of unforgettable personalities that Hall encountered over the years.

About the author (2004)

Spy and author Roger Hall was born in Baltimore, Maryland on May 20,1919. He wanted to be a flier for the U. S. Navy, but when he did not have the perfect eyesight required, he joined the U. S. Army. During World War II, he was an agent in the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), which was a precursor of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). While in the OSS, he trained as a paratrooper and helped lead a unit that successfully sabotaged the effort of Nazi troops in Norway to return home and defend Germany as well as other missions. After the war, he declined a position with the CIA and instead worked numerous jobs, including a public address announcer for the Baltimore Colts and a disc jockey, while trying to be a writer. He wrote the following three books during his lifetime: You're Stepping on My Cloak and Dagger, All My Pretty Ones, and 19. He died of congestive heart failure on July 20, 2008.

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