Off Duty - David Taylor: The Inspiration Behind “The Great Escape”
It started with a single paragraph in the Washington Post. A flagpole was being raised at a little-know Army post—Fort Hunt, VA—to honor a then-secret U.S. Army unit set up during World War II, while George Marshall was Chief of Staff. Taylor was intrigued. Eventually, the full story emerged. A World War II-era clandestine program, run out of Fort Hunt, had linked the top secret Military Intelligence Service X (or MiSX) unit to U.S. prisoners of war held in 63 German POW camps. MiSX was based on the British program known as MI9. The MiSX effort had provided the real story behind the legendary film “the Great Escape.” Taylor was told the work was shut down in 1945, but he eventually learned that was not quite true. In the 1960s, American prisoners held inside the Hanoi Hilton were still part of the program, communicating directly with U.S. intelligence officials—and Navy Seals undertook a classified rescue mission as well. This amazing story is available now thanks to Taylor’s dogged effort to secure details of the work directly from the CIA.
One of the Washington Post articles that inspired David can be found here (note that it requires a subscription to view).
Check out David’s documentary on “The Great Escape” created for National Geographic here.
EVENT DETAILS
Off Duty is an outdoor speaker series hosted by the George C. Marshall International Center. Each event features a speaker discussing a topic that touches on history adjacent to George C. Marshall and the times in which he lived. The events run around 90 minutes, with light refreshments and opportunities for networking before and after the discussion.