Bell RInger 9/8/14

In Charles town there lives a 92 year old man named Fred Mayer  whose family fled the persecution of Jews in Nazi Germany. Fred Mayer then joined the American OSS and volunteered to go back to Germany in 1945 as a spy. Fred is still active at 92 years old and still mows his girlfriends lawn and drives the Meals on Wheels van around his community. Most people in Charles town do not even know that Mayer volunteered to go back to Germany, parachuting into Austria near the town of Innsbruck to set up a spy ring by collecting valuable information for the Allies. They also do not know that Mayer was caught by the Gestapo and beaten for days by Nazi thugs who put a barrel of a pistol into his mouth breaking several of his teeth. He led one of the most daring spy missions of World War II. Mayers family was Jewish and when Hitler came to power in the 1930's his parents left the country and came to New York in 1938, one year before Hitler invaded Poland starting WWII. Mayer was known as a good soldier and could speak several European languages. In 1945 Mayer volunteered to take part in Operation Greenup which was a plan to scout out Austria's Alpine Redoubt, where Hitler and the most diehard Nazis were expected to make their final stand as Allied troops went further and further into Germany. In February 1945, Mayer and two other men parachuted into Austria and set up a spy ring with local agents. Mayer disgusied himself as a wounded soldier to gain information from others that were wounded. Mayer was beaten several times but still to this day does not hold any grudges against the Germans. Sen. Jay Rockefeller and his staff are trying to convince the secretary of defense to award Mayer the Medal of Honor for his part in the war. He is and should be considered a True American Hero - A Very Humble man willing to put his life on the line so that others could have freedom.