Carl Frederick Eifler (June 27, 1906 – April 8, 2002) was a

U.S. Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cl ...

officer best known for having commanded

Detachment 101 Detachment 101 of the Office of Strategic Services (formed under the Office of the Coordinator of Information just weeks before it evolved into the OSS) operated in the China-Burma-India Theater of World War II. On 17 January 1956, it was ...

, which served behind the enemy lines in Japanese-occupied

Burma Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. He helped stand up 13 army reserve detachments outside major universities to preserve the expertise and knowledge of the returning GIs.

Biography

Eifler was born in

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

to Carl Eifler Sr. and his wife Pauline. His parents were both born in

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

to German-American immigrants, and his father was a "rig builder" in a buggy shop. He served in the

Los Angeles Police Department The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), officially known as the City of Los Angeles Police Department, is the municipal police department of Los Angeles, California. With 9,974 police officers and 3,000 civilian staff, it is the third-large ...

, followed by the

United States Border Patrol The United States Border Patrol (USBP) is a Federal law enforcement in the United States, federal law enforcement agency under the United States' U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Customs and Border Protection and is responsible for securing ...

. Eifler enlisted in the Army(age 15) and spent a year as a private in Panama before being returned to the US as underage. He served in the

United States Army Reserve The United States Army Reserve (USAR) is a Military reserve force, reserve force of the United States Army. Together, the Army Reserve and the Army National Guard constitute the Army element of the reserve components of the United States Armed F ...

in the 1930s, earning a commission, and he was called to active duty in early 1941. Shortly afterwards, Eifler was ordered to report to "Wild Bill" Donovan, commander of the Coordinator of Information, which would soon become the

Office of Strategic Services The Office of Strategic Services (OSS) was the intelligence agency of the United States during World War II. The OSS was formed as an agency of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) to coordinate espionage activities behind enemy lines for all branc ...

(OSS). Eifler was selected to command

, a paramilitary organization intended to operate against the

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

ese army in the Burma Campaign, in China India Burma Theater. Eifler performed his work with distinction, surviving two plane crashes, but finally being disabled by head injuries that required 18 months of hospitalization. He held the rank of

colonel Colonel (abbreviated as Col., Col or COL) is a senior military officer rank used in many countries. It is also used in some police forces and paramilitary organizations. In the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, a colonel was typically in charge of ...

when he was relieved of command in 1943 because of his injuries. Eifler turned over command of Detachment 101 to Lt. Col.

William R. Peers William Ray Peers (June 14, 1914 – April 6, 1984) was a United States Army general, who is most notable for presiding over the Peers Commission investigation into the My Lai massacre and other similar war crimes during the Vietnam War. Bio ...

, and was flown to Hawaii to recover. In 1945, the OSS had Eifler devise a plan to parachute into Nazi Germany disguised as a German general to kidnap

Werner Heisenberg Werner Karl Heisenberg () (5 December 1901 – 1 February 1976) was a German theoretical physicist and one of the main pioneers of the theory of quantum mechanics. He published his work in 1925 in a breakthrough paper. In the subsequent series ...

, Germany's top nuclear physicist, smuggle Heisenberg to

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

, and bring him to the United States. Eifler did not end up doing the mission, as he was told the Americans had already developed the

Atom Bomb A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission (fission bomb) or a combination of fission and fusion reactions (thermonuclear bomb), producing a nuclear explosion. Both bomb ...

. The sole reason for kidnapping Heisenberg was to prevent the Germans from developing the bomb before the Americans. In reality, the mission was still alive, though it was handed to

Moe Berg Morris Berg (March 2, 1902 – May 29, 1972) was an American catcher and coach in Major League Baseball, who later served as a spy for the Office of Strategic Services during World War II. Although he played 15 seasons in the major leagues, ...

. After the war, Eifler earned a doctorate of psychology from the

Illinois Institute of Technology Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Tracing its history to 1890, the present name was adopted upon the merger of the Armour Institute and Lewis Institute in 1940. The university has prog ...

and worked as a clinical psychologist in

Monterey, California Monterey (; es, Monterrey; Ohlone: ) is a city located in Monterey County on the southern edge of Monterey Bay on the U.S. state of California's Central Coast. Founded on June 3, 1770, it functioned as the capital of Alta California under bo ...

. He died in 2002 at the age of 95 in

Salinas, California Salinas (; Spanish for "Salt Marsh or Salt Flats") is a city in California and the county seat of Monterey County. With a population of 163,542 in the 2020 Census, Salinas is the most populous city in Monterey County. Salinas is an urban area lo ...

. Eifler (a burly 6'2") had outlived both of his wives as well as his son, Carl Henry Eifler. Colonel Eifler is a member of the

Military Intelligence Hall of Fame The Military Intelligence Hall of Fame is a hall of fame established by the Military Intelligence Corps of the United States Army in 1988 to honor soldiers and civilians who have made exceptional contributions to military intelligence. The hall is ...

and is honored by Eifler Gym at

Fort Huachuca, Arizona Fort Huachuca is a United States Army military base, installation, established on 3 March 1877 as Camp Huachuca. The garrison is now under the command of the United States Army Installation Management Command. It is in Cochise County, Arizona, C ...

References

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External links

Partial Inventory of the Carl Frederick Eifler Papers
an
selected documents online
at the Hoover Institution Archives, Stanford University. 1906 births 2002 deaths United States Army personnel of World War II United States Army colonels American police officers United States Border Patrol agents {{US-army-World-War-II-bio-stub

Biography

References

Further reading

External links