Synopsis
Book by Render, Chuck, Brandstetter, Frank
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About the Author
Chuck Render was born in Southern Illinois where he joined the Air Force Reserve on his 17th birthday in January of 1955. He resigned as a Technical Sergeant flight engineer in 1965 and was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant. He completed his baccalaureate and masters degrees at Murray State University in Kentucky and taught math, reading and music in Bluford, Illinois before completing his doctorate at the University of Illinois. He became Assistant Director of Administrative Studies at the University of Illinois Medical Center in Chicago, and then Director of Institutional Analysis with rank of Associate Professor at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. In 1985, he was recalled to active duty in the Pentagon, serving in the Office of the Chief of Air Force Reserve and then with the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Reserve Affairs with duties in Operations and Plans. He retired from the military in 1995 after 40 years as an Air Force Reservist and moved to Clarksville, Tennessee.
Frank Maryan "Brandy" Brandstetter was born in 1912 in Bratislava and schooled by the Sisters of Charity and military officers throughout his childhood. In his mid-teens, he became a penniless immigrant on the streets of New York and began a life-long career, working his way up through the ranks in the hotel business. In January of 1941, he was sworn in as a U.S. Army Private, was promoted to Sergeant, but was plucked from the ranks, commissioned as a Second Lieutenant, and assigned to Army Intelligence. Brandy served his country for more than 50 years as an Army Reservist, on active duty and off, even at his own expense after his mandatory retirement age. As this book was being written, he was still residing in his fortress-like Casa Tranquilidad (House of Peace) on the mountainside in Acapulco, several hundred yards below the giant landmark cross and chapel he built.
Chuck Render and Frank Brandstetter both retired as "Bird Colonels."
From the Inside Flap
This is the story of a man who was born in Transylvania, entered the United States as a teen, volunteered for the U.S. Army, and jumped with the famed 506th Airborne Infantry Regiment (Band of Brothers) on D-Day in 1944. His fluency in many languages made him an indispensable resource as he traversed back and forth from the battlefront to England with Nazi prisoners. He learned of a planned mass prison breakout by 75,000 Nazi POWs intent on taking the battle across England in what their high command called Die Dritte Front (The Third Front). General Matthew B. Ridgway sent Brandy and his report up the chain of command, and the Nazi's Third Front was thwarted. Months later, Brandy was the "blindfolded captain" historians cite as the man who crossed enemy lines to carry General Ridgway's letter to Field Marshal Walter Model in the Ruhr Valley in April of 1945 comparing the German Field Marshal's situation to that of Robert E. Lee's. Brandy served at General Ridgway's side in XVIII Airborne Corps throughout that war and afterward in the Mediterranean Theater of Operations and the fledgling, 5-nation U.N. Organization.
Throughout the rest of his life, Brandy`s civilian occupation as a hotelier served as a perfect front for his duties as an Army Reserve intelligence officer. He hosted Fidel Castro at the Havana Hilton in 1959 and sent privileged information to his "big brother" in the Pentagon. Brandy entertained many who were seeking a safe haven in the restful seclusion of the Las Brisas Hotel and of Brandy's castle-like fortress home on the mountainside above Acapulco Bay--the place he affectionately named Casa Tranquilidad (House of Peace). Brandy also traveled worldwide, often at his own expense, to intriguing places at times when security threats were fomenting. Presidents Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Reagan, Yugoslavia's Josip Broz Tito, Mexico's Diaz Ordaz, Spain's King Juan Carlos, and Felix von Habsburg--heir to the defunct Habsburg Dynasty--are in the list of players along with names such as Goldwater, Kissinger, and rocket scientist Dr. Walter Dornberger. Although Brandy was never on the payroll of the CIA nor the FBI, the CIA's director, William Webster, sent him the Meritorious Service Award with a specially minted coin, and J. Edgar Hoover sent personal letters of thanks for capturing two of the FBI's 10 most wanted.
"Aufklarung" (Reconnaissance) was the clue that pierced the veil of secrecy at Camp 23 near Devizes, England in 1944. Aufklarung is what this book is all about--reconnaissance--an expert discovering, collecting and interpreting the hidden "dots" of human intelligence information.
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