(1903-2004) Army Officer and Father of the Special Forces. Bank toured Europe in the 1930s and became fluent in French and German. In 1939 he joined the Army and during WWII he saw a notice, seeking volunteers with foreign language ability and joined what became the O.S.S. Here he took part in the Jedburgh Missions that were small unit operations that worked with European resistance forces in hit-and-run attacks against the Nazis. While serving in the Korean War he was called to Washington to help create guerrilla-style units for a new kind of warfare. In June 1952 Colonel Bank was named Commander of the pioneering 10th Special Forces Group (Airborne) and set out to put together a group of people he considered the best. In 1958 he retired and in the 1960s the Green Berets became the standard for military excellence. Bank was the author of From O.S.S. to Green Berets: The Birth of Special Forces and a novel Knight's Cross based in part on an O.S.S. mission Bank was to lead to capture Hitler if he were to hide in the Austrian Alps after the collapse of the Nazis. Always a very tough autograph to obtain.

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