Pierre “Peter” Ortiz: The Marine Who Fought a Secret War
Few Marines lived a life quite like Pierre “Peter” Julien Ortiz.
Before joining the United States Marine Corps, Ortiz had already served in the French Foreign Legion, fought in North Africa, been decorated for bravery, become an officer, fought the Germans in France, been captured as a prisoner of war, and escaped.
Then he became a Marine.
FROM NEW YORK TO THE FRENCH FOREIGN LEGION
Pierre Julien Ortiz was born in New York City in 1913 and spent much of his youth in France. Gifted with languages and drawn to adventure, he abandoned his studies as a young man and joined the French Foreign Legion in 1932, when he was just 19.
Ortiz served in North Africa, including combat operations in Morocco. His service earned him French decorations for bravery and invaluable experience in weapons, leadership, languages, and unconventional warfare.
After leaving the Legion, Ortiz returned to the United States and found work in Hollywood as a technical adviser on military films.
But Europe was moving toward war.
BACK TO FRANCE
Ortiz returned to the French Foreign Legion as World War II began and received a commission as an officer.
During the German invasion of France in 1940, Ortiz was wounded and captured. He spent time as a German prisoner before eventually escaping and making his way back to the United States.
Most men might have considered that enough war for one lifetime.
Ortiz wanted back in.
BECOMING A UNITED STATES MARINE
In 1942, Ortiz enlisted in the United States Marine Corps.
He arrived at Parris Island with considerably more combat experience than the average recruit and eventually received a Marine Corps commission.
Ortiz also attended parachute training at New River, North Carolina. The training wasn't exactly new territory for him. He had already completed extensive parachute training and reportedly had more than 150 jumps from his earlier service.
His combination of combat experience, language skills, and familiarity with Europe and North Africa made him an ideal candidate for something very different from conventional Marine duty.
The Marine Corps would soon loan him to America's wartime intelligence service: the Office of Strategic Services (OSS).
A MARINE IN THE OSS
The OSS was America's wartime intelligence and special-operations organization, conducting espionage, sabotage, intelligence gathering, and unconventional warfare behind enemy lines.
Ortiz was almost perfectly suited for the job.
He was sent to North Africa, where he conducted intelligence operations and worked alongside Allied forces during the Tunisian campaign. He was seriously wounded in 1943 and returned to the United States for treatment.
His reports from the field attracted the attention of OSS director William “Wild Bill” Donovan, who wanted Ortiz returned to operational duty.
By early 1944, Ortiz was ready.
His next destination was occupied France.
BEHIND GERMAN LINES
Ortiz parachuted into France as part of an OSS mission tasked with working alongside the French Resistance.
The teams helped organize resistance groups, gather intelligence, arrange weapons drops, train fighters, and prepare the countryside for Allied operations connected with the liberation of France.
Ortiz quickly developed a reputation for extraordinary confidence.
Most agents operating behind enemy lines did everything possible to conceal their identities.
Ortiz occasionally did the opposite.
He became famous for wearing his Marine Corps uniform while operating in occupied France. One fellow OSS operative later recalled that Ortiz's willingness to appear publicly in uniform boosted French morale—but also ensured that the Germans knew an American Marine was operating among them.
THE LEGENDARY BARROOM STORY
The most famous story about Ortiz sounds more like something written for Hollywood.
According to accounts of his OSS service, Ortiz learned that German officers drinking in a local establishment had been insulting the United States, President Franklin Roosevelt, and the Marine Corps.
Ortiz reportedly returned wearing his Marine uniform and carrying two Colt M1911 pistols.
He confronted the Germans and forced them to drink a toast first to the President of the United States—and then to the United States Marine Corps.
It became one of the stories that defined the legend of Peter Ortiz.
Yet his real work was far more important than the legend.
Ortiz and his fellow operatives were helping transform scattered French resistance groups into organized forces capable of disrupting German operations as Allied armies advanced across France.
SURROUNDED
In August 1944, Ortiz and a small group of Allied personnel became surrounded by a much larger German force near the French village of Centron.
Fighting broke out around the village.
Ortiz faced an impossible decision. Continuing the fight could bring German retaliation against French civilians caught in the battle.
He chose to negotiate.
Ortiz reportedly walked toward the German commander under fire and agreed to surrender his small force on the condition that the villagers would not be harmed.
The Germans initially believed they had surrounded a considerably larger Allied force.
Instead, they discovered that much of the resistance had come from only a handful of men.
Ortiz was once again a prisoner of war.
A MARINE REFUSING TO STAY CAPTURED
Even captivity didn't end his efforts.
Ortiz attempted to escape several times before the war finally ended in 1945.
He returned to the United States as one of the most highly decorated Marines associated with the OSS.
Among his American decorations were two Navy Crosses, the nation's second-highest military decoration for valor, as well as the Legion of Merit and Purple Hearts. France and other Allied nations also honored him for his service.
FROM SECRET AGENT TO HOLLYWOOD
After the war, Ortiz returned to Hollywood.
His remarkable background made him a natural military adviser, and he also appeared on screen.
He worked on or appeared in films including 13 Rue Madeleine, Operation Secret, Rio Grande, and The Wings of Eagles, and became associated with director John Ford and actor John Wayne.
For a man whose wartime career sounded like a movie script, Hollywood was an appropriate final chapter.
THE LEGACY OF PIERRE ORTIZ
Pierre “Peter” Ortiz died in 1988 at the age of 74.
His career remains one of the most unusual in Marine Corps history.
He had been a French Foreign Legionnaire, combat veteran, prisoner of war, escapee, United States Marine officer, parachutist, and OSS operative. He fought in North Africa and Europe, worked with resistance fighters behind enemy lines, was captured twice, and repeatedly volunteered to return to combat.
There are Marines whose stories seem almost impossible when reduced to a few paragraphs.
Pierre Ortiz was one of them.