The Making of a Spy: Memoir of a German Boy Soldier Turned American Army Intelligence Agent

Leaving the chaos of postwar Germany for an uncertain future, 17-year-old Gerhardt Thamm arrived in America in 1948 with little more than his American birth certificate. With minimal command of English and little formal education, he enlisted in the Army and quickly found himself assigned to operations where his German language abilities were put to use. With the Soviet Union's emergence as a potential adversary, Thamm was recruited into the Army's clandestine services, where he operated as a secret agent in Germany, under multiple identities. This richly detailed personal narrative tells Thamm's incredible story (with more than two dozen photographs and sketches).

Table of Contents:
Table of Contents Acknowledgments      A Man for All Seasons      Words of Wisdom      A Note About Names      Prologue—A Man Called Trenker      Scared as Hell      Riding the Rollercoaster      Boy Soldier      Strangers in Our Own Land      Life in Post–World War II Germany      Black Market Days      America at Last      You’re in the Army Now...      War—Once again      Assignment: The U.S. Army General School      Germany, Here I Come      Something Special      The Visit      Every Man Has a Price      Tattered Cloak and Rusty Dagger      Doktor Hermann and Georg Trenker      The Transformation      Special Operations Team Number Three (SpecOps 3)      Special Tasks—German Automobile License Plates      Special Tasks—The Proprietary      Special Tasks—The Proprietary 2      Nosy Old Lady      Close Call      Special Tasks—The Proprietary 3      On the Streets of Berlin      Not Quite According to the Rules      Ceramics?      Problem in the Floor Wax Business      Contact Lost      Code Name “The Shepherd”      Another Busy Day in Berlin      Reorganization: The New Boss      Wasted Effort      The Last Christmas in Silesia      New Task—Build a Bolthole      Life Is a Gamble      End of Tour of Duty      Trust, and the Bad Apple      Order, Counterorder      The Later Years      Postscript      Notes      Index     

About the Author :
Gerhardt B. Thamm retired in 1987 after serving more than 38 years in intelligence and security-related operations. He has written for the Armed Forces Journal International, Periscope, Golden Sphinx, The Voice of Intelligence and Naval Proceedings. In 1994 the CIA specially honored Gerhardt for a report which was recently declassified and published in Naval Intelligence Professional Quarterly. He now lives in Fernandina Beach, Florida.

Review :
“a compelling personal story...the strength of the book lies in his descriptions of the training, tradecraft, and agent-control techniques he developed in the field”—The Intelligencer: Journal of U.S. Intelligence Studies.