Helias Doundoulakis
Helias Doundoulakis was born in Ohio, of Greek immigrant parents, in 1923. At the age of two, he and his family immigrated to Crete, Greece, and there they lived uneventfully until German paratroopers invaded the island in May of 1941. After a two-year involvement with the Cretan resistance and the British SOE, he was evacuated by the SOE to Cairo, Egypt. He enlisted in the United States Army and was recruited into the fledgling American spy service, the OSS. He was schooled in the SI of the OSS, or Secret Intelligence sector, and became adroit in the use of the wireless and other techniques so that he was sent back to Salonica, Greece, the main disembarkation point for German troop movements. Along with a team comprised of a Greek naval intelligence officer, daily messages were sent to OSS Headquarters in Cairo. With this information, detailed German troop locations were monitored, including maritime activities in the port of Salonica. The author recounts his adventures in the book, I was Trained to Be a Spy. At the war’s conclusion, he was decorated by the United States Army and the Greek
