{"id":104722,"date":"2026-08-25T17:47:47","date_gmt":"2026-08-25T17:47:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/uncategorized\/2026\/08\/25\/marine-actor-spy-ortizs-war-depicts-pursuits-of-world-war-ii-commando\/"},"modified":"2026-08-25T18:03:57","modified_gmt":"2026-08-25T18:03:57","slug":"marine-actor-spy-ortizs-war-depicts-pursuits-of-world-war-ii-commando","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/veterans\/military-history\/2026\/08\/25\/marine-actor-spy-ortizs-war-depicts-pursuits-of-world-war-ii-commando\/","title":{"rendered":"Marine, actor, spy: \u2018Ortiz\u2019s War\u2019 depicts pursuits of World War II commando"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

For journalist Katie S. Sanders, the foray into her family\u2019s World War II lore came to her, like many others, \u201ctucked in the attic.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her grandfather, Lt. Murray Simon, seldom spoke of wartime experiences, let alone the details regarding being shot down in a B-24 on a secret mission one month prior to D-Day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All that was left was a piece of that downed plane \u2014 an antenna cover loop \u2014 painted black to blend into the cover of darkness. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Still, that and a shoebox full of military medals was all \u201cjust a little bit of mythology to me,\u201d Sanders told Military Times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But in 2016, the thread of Simon\u2019s war years started to come undone thanks to Sanders\u2019 persistence and a 1949 recording of the TV hit \u201cThis Is Your Life.\u201d<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The series, which ran from 1950 to 1990, ran on the premise of luring unsuspecting guests onto the show and then surprising them with loved ones or those whose lives they had touched. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1949, the guest of honor for one episode featured, according to its host Ralph Edwards, \u201ca Marine whose life has been packed with enough adventure, thrills, hair-raising escapes, raw courage, and excitement to make half a dozen movies.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The guest, Peter Ortiz, a lanky man with thick brunette hair and a neatly trimmed mustache, strolled onto stage \u2014 only to be surprised by Sanders\u2019 grandfather a short while later. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

With that recording and the blackened antenna cover loop, Sanders began to unravel the ties that bound these two men inexplicably together. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWho was this multilingual, Hollywood-handsome figure who had parachuted behind enemy lines with bags of cash and ammunition for the Maquis, who he was at work training, between blowing up Wehrmacht railcars and eavesdropping on off-duty Nazis at pubs?\u201d Sanders pondered, adding, \u201cHow was this not already a Netflix series?\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Dressed in his Marine uniform, Ortiz meets with members of the French Resistance, Aug. 7, 1944, just days before his capture. (Raymond Bertrand, courtesy of Marine Corps History Division.)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The full picture of Ortiz, a Marine Corps officer and Office of Strategic Services legend, quickly took shape, resulting in \u201cOrtiz\u2019s War<\/a>,\u201d written by Sanders and her co-author, retired Marine and CIA officer Nicholas Reynolds<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The book, published Tuesday, weaves the tale of the most battle-decorated member of the OSS who lived a multitude of lives before his death in 1988: as a French Legionnaire, a POW, a U.S. Marine, a spy and, to cap off his career, an actor. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the OSS, created in 1942 as the first independent U.S. intelligence agency, was short-lived, the exploits of some of its legendary \u201cglorious amateurs\u201d such as William \u201cWild Bill\u201d Donovan, Julia Child and Mo Berg live on within the American lexicon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ortiz, however, despite his many hair-raising adventures and numerous accolades, has lurked in the classified shadows for decades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Something Sanders and Reynolds hope to rectify in \u201cOrtiz\u2019s War.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEven within this sort of very fascinating subset of American operatives, he really stood out,\u201d Sanders said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of only 80 Marine Corps officers to serve in the OSS during the war, Ortiz was originally tasked with evaluating the strength and capabilities of the local resistance movement in the Vercors area in southeastern France. He then organized and armed the Maquis in preparation for the long-awaited D-Day assault, according to the CIA<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While operating in France, Ortiz often donned his U.S. Marine uniform \u2014 a unique sight, even after June 6, 1944.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOrtiz felt that entering occupied France at a time when doing so was incredibly dangerous \u2014 and there weren\u2019t many allies around \u2014 that the actual impact of that gesture on the resistance\u201d was meant to boost morale when the promises of the liberation of France seemed more like a whisper of hope rather than reality, Sanders said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe was very symbolic, very literary in a lot of ways,\u201d she continued. \u201cHe was there to arm, assess, and mobilize the resistance. So here he was coming in the middle of occupied France and he looks the part.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That, Sanders said, was very much deliberate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was there, while operating in France, that Sanders\u2019 personal family story intertwines with Ortiz\u2019s. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shot down in May 1944, her grandfather, Simon, had hurled himself out of his burning plane before being rescued by members of the French Underground. Initially hidden by a French Army doctor, Sanders recounts that after the war the doctor, tongue in cheek, demanded \u201ctwo eggs\u201d from the U.S. government because he had given Simon his last two.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Details like that, Sanders noted, while researching the book, \u201cwere very humanizing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
The forged French identity card given to Lt. Murray Simon, the co-author’s grandfather. (Sanders\/Simon family photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

From there, Simon was disguised as a deaf-mute Frenchman and transported to Valence, France, where he was introduced to the American commando.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ortiz, codenamed \u201cChambellan\u201d or \u201dJean-Pierre” was the \u201cperson who, in my grandfather\u2019s case, you would pray to be intercepted by when you\u2019re a Jewish kid from Queens, New York, shot down over Nazi-occupied France,\u201d Sanders said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Simon\u2019s encounter with Ortiz, who eventually led him to safety over the Pyrenees, was just one small deed in a series of larger sacrifices, however. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following the success of Operation Overlord, Ortiz was directed to engage in acts of violent sabotage to prevent the retreating Germans from destroying key installations throughout the region. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

During fighting near Albertville, France, in early August 1944, Ortiz, commanding five Marines, a Free French officer and an Army Air Forces captain, was soon overrun by several hundred troops of the German 157th Alpine Reserve Division. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Ortiz, right, next to John Ford, the former head of the OSS Field Photographic Branch, while on the set of the 1952 film “What Price Glory.” (National Archives)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Ortiz surrendered rather than risk German reprisals on the French village.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The commando made numerous escape attempts before being liberated by the British 7th Guards Armored Division on April 29, 1945. By October of that year, with the OSS disbanded Ortiz set his cap on Hollywood. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As for Simon, he \u201clived and died very grateful,\u201d Sanders said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c<\/i>Ortiz\u2019s War<\/i><\/a>\u201d by Nicholas Reynolds and Katie S. Sanders is out now. <\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Written by Katie S. 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