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insigne.org |
Disney and the OGs by Les Hughes ©2003 by author
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Among the many military units for which Walt Disney Studios executed a patch design was the OSS's Operational Groups. There is no evidence, however, that the design, illustrated here, was ever translated into a patch. I found the image illustrated here in a marvelous book that was compiled by and for members of the Norwegian Special Operations (Norso) Group on the occasion of their reunion in 1975, a copy of which I am fortunate to own. The photo of the Disney design was included in the reunion book without comment. My interest piqued, I embarked on a search for the source of the photo. The search led to a Norso veteran who clearly recalled having provided the photo but who was not sure whether he ever had the original. (His recollection was dimmed by poor health and the passage of 13 years since the compilation of the book.) He did recall first having encountered the design while serving, as an officer, at OSS Headquarters in Washington, DC, where the design had been filed away and forgotten. I maintained contact with this gentleman for over a year, hoping his health would improve and allow him to follow through on his promise to search his belongings for evidence of the design, and when it did not, the matter slipped from my mind. Until about a year later, after I had moved to a location near where this gentleman lived. Out of curiosity, I contacted him again. However, it was not the veteran I found myself talking with, it was his widow, who informed me that her husband had died several months earlier. When I identified myself and described why I had called, she recalled my contact with her husband; in fact, he had saved my letters. She informed me that she was in the process getting rid of items of her husband that she no longer needed, and that included his wartime mementos. She invited me to come to her home and take whatever I wanted of those mementos. Among what I found was the circular, central portion of the Disney design, an image of which is included here. The disk is on glossy paper that exhibits a network of very fine cracks, and the image is extraordinarily sharp, so sharp as to make me doubt it is a photo. (The color is due to writing on the back of the disk by the veteran.) Might this be part of what came from the Disney studios? I have no expertise in this area, but I will enjoy hearing from anyone who does (contact me through this web site). |
