You may be cool, but you will never be wearing-your-service-uniform-AND-SUNGLASSES-in-German-occupied-France-while-the-Nazis-are-actively-hunting-you cool. Peter Ortiz was that cool. This week we finish the story of French Foreign Legionnaire turned OSS operative Peter Ortiz, after he jumps behind enemy lines, deep into Nazi-occupied France to stir up mayhem and cause as many problems for the Germans as he can.
What would you do if the Germans were hunting you and you happened to end up in the same bar as several German officers? I can almost guarantee that your answer to that question is completely different from Ortiz's answer - know mine was! My answer also would not have earned me a Navy Cross.
After the war, Ortiz returned to Hollywood, and while he never made it big as an actor, he was friends with John Ford and counted a few John Wayne movies (Including She Wore a Yellow Ribbon) among the 25 or so he got small parts in.
Marine Corps Colonel Pierre "Peter" Julien Ortiz died on May 16, 1988; he was 74 years old. He is buried at Arlington National Cemetery in Section 59, Grave 1269.
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