WASINGTON, DC On March 21, a group of World War II veterans, including Greek-American Andrew Mousalimas, were awarded the Congressional Gold Medal for their efforts in the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the predecessor of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). The medal is the highest civilian honor bestowed by the U.S. Congress. The ceremony took place in Emancipation Hall in the Capitol Building in Washington, DC. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco, House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky were among those present and all spoke about the remarkable achievements of the honorees.
As the San Francisco Chronicle reported, Mousalimas, age 93, “is a noted Oakland restaurant owner and sports figure… but in his youth he was a member of a top-secret group of soldiers who fought behind enemy lines in commando operations, blowing up bridges, gathering intelligence, killing the Axis enemy and disrupting supply lines.”
The honorees were all OSS members, “some were spies, some organized special operations, and some carried them out,” the Chronicle reported. Their efforts were secret and they all kept their silence throughout the years.
Mousalimas was recruited at just 18 years old to work in the special battalion of Greek-Americans, going behind German lines into occupied Greece and Yugoslavia. The citation with the medal noted that their efforts, “resulted in some of the bravest acts of the war and forever changed the course of history,” the Chronicle reported.
Mousalimas and the battalion worked with British commandos and Greek partisans, but it was over 45 years later that their heroic deeds were revealed. “It was one of the best kept secrets of the war,” Mousalimas said, the Chronicle reported.
The outgoing Mousalimas ran the well-known Kings X bar on Piedmont Avenue in Oakland for many years and co-founded what became the first fantasy football league, but he never shared a word about his WWII experience until the information became declassified.
He told the Chronicle that he had nightmares for years, “It bothers you years later,” he said, adding, “War isn’t glamorous.”
The son of Greek immigrants, Mousalimas spoke only Greek at home in West Oakland where he was born and raised. Like many children of immigrants, he learned English at school. While stationed at Fort Bliss, Texas, he was recruited for the Greek-American unit since the Army needed Greek-speaking soldiers. The plan was to parachute them into Greece to help the partisan guerrillas. “Officially, it was part of the 2671st Reconnaissance Battalion” and “his unit was the Greek American Operational Group, consisting of about 160 officers and men,” the Chronicle reported.
Their efforts included ambushes, blowing up rail lines, and other actions that disrupted the enemy. “In one particular operation in the mountains of Macedonia, his unit demolished a bridge used by Axis troop trains, a nearly perfect raid that was ‘a complete surprise,’ he said later,” the Chronicle reported.
Those in command of the Allies were also apparently surprised since they were unaware that American commandos were in the mountains of Greece.
With all the explosions, Mousalimas lost much of his hearing, which continues to trouble him to this day.
The danger was very real for those working to sabotage the Nazis. As the Chronicle reported, “Adolf Hitler issued a personal order that any of these troops captured would not be treated as prisoners of war, but instead questioned without mercy and then ‘eliminated,’ and “the Nazis also offered huge rewards for information any OSS operative in Greece. If captured, the prisoner would be weighed, and the informant would be given the prisoners weight in gold.”
A point of pride for Mousalimas is “that during his time in Greece, not a single Greek citizen betrayed the Allied operatives,” the Chronicle reported.
Mousalimas has been honored with many other awards, including from the Greek government many years ago for this service during the war. He is also in the Fantasy Football Hall of Fame, the Chronicle reported, for helping create what “later became the popular Internet fantasy football league with over 20 million members.”
The Congressional Gold Medal has been awarded to only 175 men and women over the years including George Washington and Rosa Parks. The president awards the nation’s other highest citizen honor, the Medal of Freedom.
As the Chronicle reported, many who fought alongside Mousalimas have passed away, and in an interview a week before the ceremony he said “Only three of us will be there for the medal.”
The recognition, though late for some, is well-deserved for Mousalimas and all the honorees.
The post Greek-American, WWII Hero Mousalimas Awarded Congressional Gold Medal appeared first on The National Herald.