- SURNAME
Gale
- FORENAME
Paul Hemenway
- UNIT
OSS
- RANK
Major + Lieutenant Colonel
- NUMBER
0-370722
- AWARD
Silver Star,Bronze Star
- PLACE
Normandy 1944 (SS - preOSS) China 1945 (BS)
- ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
The follwing information courtesy of Stanwood Myers (nephew)
Birth: May 5, 1917
Melrose
Middlesex County
Massachusetts, USA
Death: Feb. 10, 1984
Longboat Key
Manatee County
Florida, USA
Paul was the son of Arthur Dudley Boutillier and Marion Viola Perham.
His parents separated shortly after he was born, and Paul went to live with his mother and her second husband, Burton Lewis Gale, when Paul was about five years old. Although he was never formally adopted by his step-father, Paul had his name legally changed (in Suffolk Co., Mass) from Boutillier to Gale.
Paul was good at sports. He played a good game of golf, was an excellent tennis player and an expert swimmer. He lived in Nahant, Mass and, in his teens, he taught others boat sailing skills (including the O'Day boys who later produced their own popular line of sailboats).
In 1938, he graduated from New York Military Academy where he won awards for his leadership skills and his accomplishments in sports. Following graduation, Paul worked briefly for a stock brokerage firm in Boston , Mass.
He was a member of the Infantry Reserve, and in August 1941 was promoted to 1st Lieutenant and assigned to the 376th Infantry. During WW II, he saw duty in all the major war campaigns, serving in North Africa, Sicily, Italy, England, France, Germany and China. One of Captain Paul Gale's exploits in North Africa is described by Ernie Pyle on pages 18 & 19 of his book "Here is your War" (Pub by Henry Holt & Co., 1943).
On "D-Day", he went ashore at "Omaha Beach". A front page newspaper article of the Aug 11, 1944 (Baltimore) Evening Sun covers Major Paul Gale's success in almost single-handedly driving out a whole detachment of Germans from the village of Granville, France on July 30, 1944, following the Normandy invasion.
Paul was on the First Division staff of General Teddy Roosevelt, Jr., and his exploits in Sicily and China are described on pages 399 & 400 of "Donovan - America's Master Spy", A biography of Gen. William Donovan by Richard Dunlop ( Pub by Rand McNally & Co., 1982). He became a member of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) under Donovan during the war and his rank was Colonel when the war ended.
The following is an excerpt from the book.
"Donovan Joins the Invasion of Sicily
"Although the OSS rejected use of its agents as combat infantrymen as a misguided waste of resources, Donovan, himself personally enjoyed being in combat at the front and frequently and needlessly exposed himself to its dangers. In the U.S. invasion of Sicily in July 1943, the OSS director and a few of his men accompanied the 1st Infantry Division, landing with them on the first day, and staying with them for a few days during their advance inland. Captain Paul Gale, a staff officer from the 1st Division whom Donovan later recruited for OSS, said Donovan kept pushing him to take the jeep farther forward. "General, we're getting where the Italian patrols are active," Gale warned. "Fine," Donovan replied. Soon enough, they ran into an Italian patrol. Donovan leaped up and fired the machine gun mounted on the jeep. "He was happy as a clam," Gale recalled. "We had a hell of a fire fight." But Major General Theodore Roosevelt, Jr., the division commander, subsequently chewed Gale out "for getting such an important man into such a bad position."
Paul joined the CIA after the war, and one of his assignments was as Middle East Station Chief for the CIA in Athens, Greece.
He and his wife Edna lived in Falls Church, Virginia. Edna was a secretary in the office of Senator (later President) Lyndon Baines Johnson, and, following Paul's retirement from the CIA, they moved to Longboat Key, Florida.
Family links:
Parents:
Arthur Dudley Boutillier (1890 - 1973)
Marion Viola Perham Gale (1892 - 1959)
Burial:
Cremated, Ashes scattered at sea.
Specifically: Ashes scattered in the Gulf of Mexico, per his request.
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