I spent my vacation from October 11 through October 14 with a bunch of seniors in North Carolina. Doesn’t sound like fun?

The trip was for the annual OSS Detachment 101 Association reunion, which I am a member of because my grandfather served with 101 in the China, Burma, India Theater during World War II. The actions taken by Detachment 101 are the things movies are made of. As the commanders of guerilla units, espionage and sabotage agents, search and rescue missions, and intelligence and propaganda communications, 101 has been credited with the highest kill/loss ratio for any type of unit in American military history – between 5,400 and 15,000 Japanese soldiers while losing just 27 agents throughout the war. After the unit was disbanded at war’s end, OSS alumni along with their skills and knowledge helped form the basis for the Central Intelligence Agency and many modern warfare units including the Army Airborne and Special Forces.

My grandfather passed away in 1999 without ever telling me anything about his wartime experiences. He had a hand in killing some of those enemy Japanese soldiers, and he lost a number of friends in Burma. Over the years, his children and his wife learned very little. Luckily, unbeknownst to us, he recorded his personal history on audiotape that has helped fill in the blanks since its discovery after his death. Attending these reunions, which he regularly did while raising his family and enjoying his retirement, is beginning to help us fill in the blanks. It’s also a dream come true for an American and Military history nut like myself.

The reunion occurred at Fort Bragg, NC, headquarters of USASOC, or the United States Army Special Operations Command – home to Special Ops groups such as the 82nd Airborne, 75th Rangers, and the Green Berets.