Paul Swank: Enduring Hero: An American Soldier’s Sacrifice in Occupied France

Lt. Paul A. Swank led a small company of American OSS soldiers and their French resistance allies in German-occupied France in 1944, clandestinely sabotaging German operations, blowing up key bridges to halt the German advance, and allowing the eventual recapture of a key food depot. In doing so he was shot and killed by the enemy near the spa town of Alet-Les-Bains, near Carcassonne, on August 17, 1944. Paul Swank: Enduring Hero, tells his story leading up to this firefight, how OSS (the precursor to the CIA) and its Operation Groups (precursor to Special Forces) came to be, and recounts the touching aftermath, which has seen Lt. Swank over the past 75 years become an enduring symbol of French-American amity, as well as a reminder that freedom must be defended at all costs. Lt. Swank, posthumously awarded the Legion d'Honneur by France, the Distinguished Service Cross and other medals by the U.S. Army, lies where he requested to be buried, in a tomb where he fell. He is honored each Aug. 17 in a moving ceremony.