Carl Eifler This is Me

Education

 Web References

1. 1. 'The Deadliest Colonel' - Local News - californianonline.com

   www.californianonline.com/news - [Cached]

   Published on: 5/11/2002   Last Visited: 5/11/2002

   Salinas' Carl Eifler was among Army's intelligence heroes
   
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   Carl Eifler, 95, died April 8.
   
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   Moon, who is from Orange, wrote Eifler's 1975 biography, "The Deadliest Colonel."
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   Eifler made his reputation as a tough and imaginative leader in Burma during World War II.
   
   He ran secret and highly successful OSS operations against Japanese forces. The OSS, the Office of Strategic Services, was under the command of William "Wild Bill" Donovan and was the forerunner of the Central Intelligence Agency.
   
   For his work, much of which remained classified for decades, Eifler was inducted into Military Intelligence Hall of Fame in Fort Huachuca, Ariz. (The fort's new athletic center is also named in his honor.)
   
   In 1993, he received the William J. Donovan Medal, named for his former boss. In doing so, Eifler joined an elite club of recipients to include General of the Army Dwight Eisenhower (1965) and Pres.
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   A former Los Angeles policeman, Carl Eifler, at his prime, stood 6-feet, 4-inches tall and weighed a solid 300 pounds. He was a true-life action figure. He could box, knew jujitsu and was a crack shot.
   
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   Eifler entered Burma in December 1942, but only after hesitation.
   
   "I thought saboteurs were the lowest type of person alive," Eifler told The Californian in a 1989 interview. "For three days, I tried to work through my moral dilemma before I took the assignment."
   
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   Eifler's unit was to gather intelligence and to help identify targets for the Tenth Air Force. It rescued pilots whose planes crashed while flying the mountainous approach into China. It cut enemy supply lines, built small airstrips and set up ambushes.
   
   The OSS armed and trained 8,000 Kachin guerillas, too.
   
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   Eifler piloted small aircraft and patrol boats on missions behind enemy lines.
   
   It added up to the U.S.'s first large-scale irregular warfare operation of its kind.
   
   On one mission, Eifler suffered severe head injuries. While in the water and pulling a boat of agents ashore, he was knocked into the rocks by a wave.
   
   The injuries lead to recurrent head pain, strokes and seizures.
   
   "A lot of doctors told me I'd spend the rest of my life as a vegetable," Eifler told The Californian in 1989. "It seemed none knew how to help, so I decided to do it myself."
   
   After the war, he studied psychology "to learn to function despite pain." He earned a doctorate in the subject and also a degree in divinity and worked as a clinical psychologist for Monterey County.
   
   Laura Gomez did bookkeeping for Eifler for the last nine years of his life.
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   Eifler was previously an agnostic but studied the Bible and historical documents.
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   Their good friend and former leader, Carl Eifler, will be on many minds, Moon said.
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   At the memorial service for Eifler in Salinas, he stood to read a poem in tribute to his friend.
   
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   Carl Eifler, left, is dressed in native clothing during World War II operations. Eifler, a Salinas resident, died at age 95 on April 8.
   
   Carl Eifler, left, as an Army colonel and more recently in a church directory photograph.
   
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