Nicholas Reynolds and Katie S. Sanders in Conversation

Join authors Nicholas Reynolds and Katie S. Sanders to learn the untold story of the Allies’ secret weapon in occupied France.

Peter J. Ortiz’s path to becoming the most battle-decorated member of America’s first spy agency—and one of the most decorated Marines of World War II—was unlike any other.

Born in New York and raised between California and France, he would have stints as a merchant seaman, dude ranch manager, race car driver, lion tamer, circus performer, and Hollywood stuntman and actor. As a teenager, Ortiz ran away from boarding school in France to join the French Foreign Legion. He first experienced combat in North Africa against tribesmen in the Sahara. Fighting on the front lines against the Germans in 1940, he was badly wounded and captured. He repeatedly escaped, one time fleeing a hospital train after assuming the identity of a dead soldier. Docking in the US the day after Pearl Harbor, Ortiz enlisted in the Marine Corps. As someone who could speak French like a native--and get by in Arabic, German, and Spanish--the dashing former Legionnaire immediately stood out. Instead of being deployed to the Pacific like the majority of Marines, Ortiz was recruited by the Office of Strategic Services (OSS)—America’s World War II forerunner to the Central Intelligence Agency—for special operations in North Africa and Europe.

In 1944, Ortiz parachuted into France on two top-secret inter-Allied missions. Operating deep behind enemy lines, he traveled throughout Southeastern France—at times donning his Marine uniform—arming and training the Maquis, blowing up Nazi infrastructure, and aiding downed Allied airmen. Rotating his many covers—including as a fashion designer and minor Vichy government official—he infiltrated Nazi gatherings and funneled intelligence about German positions back to OSS London ahead of D-Day. By the time he escaped across the Pyrenees, he was among the Gestapo’s most wanted. Two months after the Normandy landings, Ortiz jumped back into the French Alps, this time with a team of Americans he recruited for “Le Grand Parachutage,” a drop that sent more than 150 tons of supplies raining down to the Maquis to fight the Axis. When his six-man patrol was surrounded by more than one hundred Germans at the village of Centron, Ortiz faced a choice: fight the enemy or save the village from Nazi annihilation. A rare Marine in the European Theater, he received two Navy Crosses. Ortiz’s story—an untold corner of World War II history—is one of extraordinary courage, resistance, and self-sacrifice.

Nicholas Reynolds, Colonel USMCR (Ret) 
Growing up in the shadow of World War II fueled this author's passion for history. Freshly minted PhD from Oxford University in hand, Nicholas Reynolds joined the United States Marine Corps, serving as an infantry officer and then as a historian. He later served as a CIA officer, ending his career with a years-long stretch as the historian for the CIA Museum. In retirement, he teaches and writes. His most recent book was Need to Know, World War II and the Rise of American Intelligence, designated one of the “Best of 2022” by The New Yorker. He and his wife, Becky, live outside Washington, DC and care for a Havanese named Ruby. 

Katie S. Sanders 
Katie S. Sanders is an award-winning journalist who has written for National Geographic, The New York Times, Washington Post Magazine, New York, TIME, Smithsonian, Vanity Fair, Insider, Glamour, and Marie Claire. Her reporting has brought her to the CIA, the White House, and the homes and reunions of many World War II veterans and Holocaust survivors. After discovering that her late grandfather—a Jewish-American pilot shot down over France—was rescued by Peter Ortiz, she teamed up with Nicholas Reynolds to co-author Ortiz’s War. A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, she lives in Brookline, MA with her husband, sons, and many history books.