A Special Forces Warrant Officer (180A) is the recipient of the OSS Society’s Peter Ortiz Award. Lt. Gen. Scott Howell (USAF), the Vice Commander of USSOCOM, presented the award to CW4 David Shane Gandy of the 1st Special Forces Group. [1]
The Peter Ortiz Award is named after a legendary member of the Office of Strategic Services. Ortiz was an exceptional man – one who had several occupations. He served in the French Foreign Legion for five years and was highly decorated for his service. In addition, he was a US Marine – both active and in the Marine reserves. He was most noted for his time as a member of the OSS during World War II where he participated in several dangerous missions in Nazi occupied Europe. He was held as a prisoner of war twice and was the most decorated member of the OSS. After the war he spent time as movie star in Hollywood. [2]
CW4 Gandy, the 2017 recipient of the Peter Ortiz Award, has spent over twenty years in the U.S. Army with the bulk of his time in the 1st Special Forces Group. Each SF group specializes in a specific region of the world – the 1st SFGA has the Pacific region. Gandy has deployed to many countries in the Asian theater of operations during his Special Forces career. In 2010 he suffered serious injuries from an improvised explosive device (IED) which involved a significant recovery period. During his recovery he became a patient advocate assisting in the recovery of other wounded service members. He would later return to Afghanistan where he served with Special Operations Task Force West as a targeting officer.
The award ceremony for Shane Gandy was recorded and a video of the presentation posted on the OSS Society’s YouTube site. You can watch the presentation of the OSS Society’s Peter Ortiz Award at the link below:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGq3kFrQSUM
Footnotes:
[1] OSS Society, www.osssociety.org The year 2017 was also the 75th anniversary of the formation of the OSS.
[2] See Legionnaire, OSS Officer, US Marine and Hollywood Hearthrob, Central Intelligence Agency, June 12, 2017.
