END
BY DIRECTION OF BRIG GEN PICKERING USMC
HART 2LT USMCR
[TWELVE]
T O P S E C R E T
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
0900 8 FEBRUARY 1943
VIA SPECIAL CHANNEL
GENERAL DOUGLAS MACARTHUR
SUPREME COMMANDER SWPOA
FOLLOWING PERSONAL FROM THE PRESIDENT TO GENERAL MACARTHUR
MY DEAR DOUGLAS:
I'M SURE THAT YOU WILL AGREE THE FOLLOWING IS SOMETHING AT LEAST ONE OF US SHOULD HAVE THOUGHT OF SOME TIME AGO. I WOULD APPRECIATE YOUR GETTING THIS INTO FLEMING PICKERING'S HANDS AS SOON AS POSSIBLE.
ELEANOR JOINS ME IN EXTENDING THE MOST CORDIAL GREETINGS TO YOU AND JEAN.
AS EVER,
FRANKLIN
END PERSONAL FROM THE PRESIDENT TO GENERAL MACARTHUR
FOLLOWING PERSONAL FROM THE PRESIDENT TO BRIG GEN PICKERING
MY DEAR FLEMING:
FIRST LET ME EXPRESS MY GREAT ADMIRATION FOR THE MANNER IN WHICH YOUR PEOPLE CONDUCTED THE OPERATION TO ESTABLISH CONTACT WITH WENDELL FERTIG IN THE PHILIPPINES AND MY PERSONAL DELIGHT THAT JIMMY'S COMRADE-IN-ARMS CAPTAIN MCCOY AND HIS BRAVE TEAM HAVE BEEN SAFELY EVACUATED. PLEASE RELAY TO EVERYONE CONCERNED MY VERY BEST WISHES AND GRATITUDE FOR A JOB WELL DONE.
SECOND, LET ME EXPRESS MY CHAGRIN AT NOT SEEING THE OBVIOUS SOLUTION TO OUR PROBLEM VIS-A-VIS OSS OPERATIONS IN THE PACIFIC UNTIL, LITERALLY, LAST NIGHT. I WOULD NOT HAVE DREAMED OF COURSE OF OVERRIDING THE WHOLLY UNDERSTANDABLE CONCERNS OF GENERAL MACARTHUR AND ADMIRAL NIMITZ THAT THE OSS OPERATIONS IN THEIR AREAS OF COMMAND WOULD MEAN THE INTRUSION OF STRANGERS, AND THUS MIGHT INTERFERE WITH THEIR OWN OPERATIONS. IN THEIR SHOES, I WOULD HAVE BEEN SIMILARLY CONCERNED.
OUR NEED, OF COURSE, IS FOR SOMEONE WHO ENJOYS THE COMPLETE TRUST OF BOTH ADMIRAL NIMITZ, GENERAL MACARTHUR, AND DIRECTOR DONOVAN. I HAD FRANKLY DESPAIRED OF FINDING SUCH A PERSON UNTIL LAST NIGHT. WHILE HAVING DINNER WITH OUR GOOD FRIEND SENATOR RICHMOND FOWLER, I WAS STRUCK BY SOMETHING CLOSE TO A DIVINE REVELATION, FOR I REALIZED THAT HE YOU HAD BEEN STANDING IN FRONT OF ALL OF US ALL THE TIME.
I HAVE TODAY ISSUED AN EXECUTIVE ORDER APPOINTING YOU DEPUTY DIRECTOR OF THE OFFICE OF STRATEGIC SERVICES FOR PACIFIC OPERATIONS. I AM SURE THAT GENERAL MACARTHUR AND ADMIRAL NIMITZ WILL BE AS ENTHUSIASTIC ABOUT THIS APPOINTMENT AS WAS DIRECTOR DONOVAN. I HAVE FURTHER INSTRUCTED ADMIRAL LEAHY TO TRANSFER ALL PERSONNEL AND EQUIPMENT OF USMC SPECIAL DETACHMENT SIXTEEN TO YOU, AND TO ARRANGE FOR THE TRANSFER OF ANY OTHER PERSONNEL YOU MAY FEEL ARE NECESSARY.
WHILE YOU WILL BE REPORTING DIRECTLY TO DIRECTOR DONOVAN, LET ME ASSURE YOU THAT MY DOOR WILL ALWAYS BE OPEN TO YOU AT ALL TIMES. I LOOK FORWARD TO DISCUSSING FUTURE OPERATIONS WITH YOU JUST AS SOON AS YOU FEEL YOU CAN LEAVE BRISBANE.
WITH MY WARMEST REGARDS
FRANKLIN
END PERSONAL MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT TO BRIG GEN PICKERING
BY DIRECTION OF THE PRESIDENT
LEAHY, ADMIRAL USN
CHIEF OF STAFF TO THE PRESIDENT
T O P S E C R E T
AUTHOR'S ENDNOTE
When the U.S. Navy Cargo Submarine Narwhal, later in the war finally sur-faced off Mindanao to deliver a good many supplies and to evacuate seriously ill Americans, civilian and military, they were greeted by the band of USFIP, in uniform, playing "The Stars and Stripes Forever."
When General Douglas MacArthur was able to finally make good his pledge to return to the Philippines, his troops were greatly assisted in the liber-ation of Mindanao by the 30,000 trained, uniformed, and armed men, Filipino and American, of U.S. Forces in the Philippines, under the command of Wen-dell Fertig.
Fertig survived the war, and resumed his successful civilian career as an engineer. He was a familiar sight, and a revered figure, around the Special Warfare Center-home of the Green Berets-at Fort Bragg, N.C.
Although he had commanded more men in combat than does a major gen-eral commanding a division, the Army never saw fit to promote him, even in the reserve, beyond full colonel.
His comrade-in-arms (and fellow civil engineer turned demolition expert) in the early days of the war on Luzon, Lieutenant (later Major) Ralph Fralick, successfully escaped from Bataan just before the peninsula fell, taking with him forty of his men. After a harrowing 1,200-mile voyage in an open boat, they arrived at Hanoi, in what then was French Indochina.
Fralick lined up his starving, exhausted, but still-proud troops and marched them to report to the French authorities. Salutes were exchanged, and then the French turned the Americans over to their allies the Japanese. Fralick survived four horrible years of Japanese captivity, and after a brief period in the peacetime Army, also resumed his career as a civil engineer.
To the end of his life he hated all things French.
Major Ralph Fralick died in 1993, and is buried in the U.S. Cemetery at the Pensacola, Florida, Naval Air Station. The author was privileged to know him well, and ultimately to deliver his eulogy.
The End
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