American Valor Quarterly Issue 5 - Winter 2008/09 | Page 22
P.O. Box 1142
Top-Secret Intelligence Gathering in World War II
Just outside the limits of the nation’s capital, a top-secret military
intelligence facility was created in 1942 with the task of
interrogating high-value German prisoners of war. Code-named
P.O. Box 1142, the facility was located at Fort Hunt, Virginia, on
lands that had previously been owned by George Washington.
Many of Germany’s foremost scientific minds passed through
P.O. Box 1142, including Wehrnher von Braun and Heinz Schlicke,
the inventor of infrared detection. Not only did the camp aid in
the Allied effort during World War II, the information obtained
from men like von Braun had direct effects on the subsequent
Cold War.
stationed. In those days many of the men in the 1st Cavalry, were
refugees from the “Dust Bowl” in Texas and Oklahoma, who
were excellent horsemen whereas I was strictly a neophyte. I did
manage to ride a horse military style.
Because of my academic background (I was fairly literate in those
days) I was assigned as the personnel clerk. But I felt that my
proficiencies were not properly exploited because I was a speaker
of both English and German. So I tried to get into military
intelligence, but I wasn’t a citizen. I became a citizen only in 1943.
Brandon Bies: Dr. Mandel, could you
similarly tell us when and where you
were born and how you came to this
country and a little bit about your early
life in the United States?
Despite its importance, P.O. Box 1142
remained a secret for decades following
the war due to the sensitive nature of its
operations. For 60 years, veterans who
served there kept silent, sharing their
George Mandel: Actually my early
experiences with no one. Recently, the
history is in many ways similar to what
surviving veterans were reunited at Fort
you just heard. I was born in 1924 in
Hunt, and a memorial was dedicated in
Berlin. My father was a decorated World
their honor. And, for the first time, the
War I officer, but he fought on the
U.S. Army and U.S. Navy officially
wrong side because he was fighting for
recognized them for their work. At the
the Kaiser. We thought that living in
th
11 Annual Conference, two of these
Berlin was perfectly fine except that we
A photo of the POW interrogation center at Fort Hunt
veterans – George Frenkel and Dr.
had some American relatives who said,
- known as P.O. Box 1142 - taken in 1942.
George Mandel – shared their
“You have to get out of this place.”
experiences at P.O. Box 1142. Moderating the panel was Brandon They said this because of our Jewish background, so we emigrated
Bies of the National Park Service, who has led the effort to to the United States in 1937. I went to high school outside of
New York City in Scarsdale, New York.
record these veterans’ stories.
Then I went onto college. I decided to major in chemistry, largely
because I had a high school teacher who was teaching chemistry,
and I thought that was very exciting. I was in college just about
three months when Pearl Harbor was bombed. At the time
America had tried to stay out of the war until this happened. The
question was: What do you do next? I was told that the
development of science was extremely important in the national
interest, and I should by all means finish my college education in
I spent four years in New York doing menial jobs because I was chemistry, which I did. I got a bachelor’s degree at Yale.
a high school graduate. Then I was drafted and was assigned – as
a city boy from New York who had only seen horses off and on As soon as I finished that, I was drafted and served in the infantry
– to the horse cavalry. This was incidentally the division that made for basic training. When the Army discovered that because I had
George Custer famous. Some of my friends have jokingly said lived in Germany for some twelve to thirteen years and that I
that I was probably the last survivor of “Custer’s Last Stand,” spoke German, they thought that might be of interest to the
American war effort. Also they thought the fact that I could use
but that was a little bit before my time!
a typewriter was very significant.
I received my basic training in Kansas and was subsequently
transferred to El Paso, Texas, where the 1st Cavalry Division was
National Archives photo
George Frenkel: I was born in Berlin, Germany in 1919 and
spent a very happy childhood in both Switzerland and Germany,
mostly in Germany. In 1933, as I am sure you all know, Adolf
Hitler came to power and a very trying period ensued for
members of the Jewish faith. Eventually, because we were lucky
enough to have family in the United States, we managed to
emigrate, and I arrived in New York.
AMERICAN VALOR QUARTERLY - Winter 2008/09 - 22