The Oss Society

Founded in 1947 by OSS founder General William "Wild Bill" Donovan, The Office of Strategic Services Society (OSS) is a nonprofit organization that celebrates the historic accomplishments of the OSS during World War II, the first organized effort by the United States to implement a centralized system of strategic intelligence and the predecessor to the Central Intelligence Agency, the U.S. Special Operations Command, and the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR). It educates the American public regarding the continuing importance of strategic intelligence and special operations to the preservation of freedom. The OSS Society led successful efforts to pass the OSS Congressional Gold Medal Act; to have the OSS and first CIA headquarters added to the National Register of Historic Places; and to install a memorial at Arlington National Cemetery honoring OSS personnel killed and missing in action. It hosts the William J. Donovan Award Dinner, the preeminent annual gathering of the U.S. intelligence and special operations communities. It is planning to build the National Museum of Intelligence and Special Operations to honor Americans who have served at the "tip of the spear" as our nation's first line of defense. Its award-winning short documentaries, “Filming Under Fire: John Ford’s OSS Field Photo Branch,” and "Operation Overlord: OSS and the Battle for France," were shown in Normandy by the US Special Operations Command, and by CIA to its personnel worldwide, to commemorate the 80th anniversary of D-Day. Steven Spielberg thanked The OSS Society for “preserving this history and keeping it in our conversations 80 years later.”