John Bross
 John Bross  ( spook) | |
|---|---|
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| Born | 1911 |
| Died | October 1990 (Age 79) |
| Nationality | US |
| Alma mater | • Harvard College • Harvard Law School • Camp X |
| Children | • Peter Bros • John Bross Jr. |
| Member of | Office of Strategic Services |
John A. Bross was a OSS and CIA spook who "influenced American intelligence for decades".[1][2]
Education
Bross was a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School.[3]
Career
Bross practiced law in Manhattan from 1936 to 1942.[3]
He the served in Europe with the United States Air Force, before joining Office of Strategic Services.[3]
He trained at Camp X a facility for spies and saboteurs in Ontario, Canada. The school, which the British Special Operations Executive (SOE) created to train Americans and Canadians in the art of special operations, functioned as a liaison between the SOE and U.S. officials leading the creation of American intelligence organizations.[1][4]
Bross participated in the planning of Operation HAMMER, the penetration of Berlin by OSS agents. He convinced the Army Air Corps to employ the fast A-26 planes for these missions, thus greatly contributing to the success of intelligence collection efforts deep behind enemy lines.[5][3]
After the war, Bross remained in Europe and participated in reconnaissance missions into the Soviet sector of occupied Berlin.[2]
He later developed an intelligence network of agents in the Communist state of Albania[2]
Bross left the Army Air Forces in 1945 as the Chief of OSS missions to the United Kingdom, Denmark, and Norway[2].
In 1948 he was on the staff of the Hoover Commission, which made recommendations to the reorganize the Federal Government.[3]
From 1949 to 1951 he was assistant general counsel to deep politician John J. McCloy, U.S. High Commissioner for Germany, and from 1951 to 1971 he was with the Central Intelligence Agency, where he was Chief of Station in Germany, Deputy Chief and then Chief of the Eastern European Division, and deputy to the director of program evaluation from 1963 to 1971, when he retired.[3] Among other projects, he supervised overhead reconnaissance systems and target detection programs in conjunction with the US Air Force.[2]
In 1980, he joined the Ronald Reagan Transition Team at the CIA and remained there through 1983 as a Special Advisor to the Director of Central Intelligence.[2]
References
- ↑ a b https://science.howstuffworks.com/camp-x.htm
- ↑ a b c d e f https://www.ikn.army.mil/apps/MIHOF/biographies/Bross,%20John.pdf
- ↑ a b c d e f https://www.nytimes.com/1990/10/17/obituaries/john-adams-bross-79-lawyer-and-us-aide.html
- ↑ https://www.dvidshub.net/news/467950/john-bross-receives-army-air-forces-commission-april-1942
- ↑ https://www.cia.gov/resources/csi/static/OSS-and-London-Germans.pdf
