Gerhardt B. Thamm

Gerhardt Thamm, born in Detroit, Michigan in 1930, lived in Germany from 1932 until 1948.

From 12 February until 10 May 1945 he served as a "boy soldier" on the Eastern Front, with the 54th Jäger Regiment of the 100th Jäger Division. He and his family spent sixteen months as Soviet Army slave laborers. In 1946, the Polish government deported him and his family from their home in the largest, United Nations-sanctioned, "ethnic cleansing" operation; they re-settled in West Germany. Gerhardt returned to the United States on 21 Feb. 1948, and in March of that year he joined the U. S. Army. He completed basic training at Fort Knox, Kentucky with the 3rd Armored Division. From June 1948 to January 1953 he served in captured enemy document exploitation with the German Military Document Section (GMDS) in Pentagon Room MB1026. In 1953 he entered the Military Intelligence School in Fort Riley, Kansas, then was assigned to 513th MIG, Oberursel, Germany. In late 1953 he attended Advanced Course, Clandestine Intelligence, at Oberursel, Germany, and after completion, he became a Special Agent, U.S. Army clandestine case officer.

Later, Gerhardt served in the Pentagon NATO Document Security Force; and still later as team chief for 410th and 411th US Army Security Special Operations Units in Fort Meade, Maryland, Frankfurt, and Herzogenaurach, Germany.

Gerhardt retired from the US Army in June 1968, and worked briefly for the Library of Congress (Federal Research Branch). From 1970 to 1984 he served as an intelligence analyst with Naval Intelligence Support Center (NISC); thereafter as Operations Officer with Navy Task Force 168 (CTF 168); then transferred into AT-10, Defense Intelligence Agency, as HUMINT Operations Officer.

Retired from DIA in 1987, he created - with partner Lou Zammarella - lectures on counterespionage and security topics in basic and advanced security training, and conducted those courses at the Pentagon (OSD Office, Secretary of Defense, and JCS, Joint Chiefs of Staff).

Published:

Articles: "The Hallelujah Weapon," an anti-armor warfare article, May 1987 issue of Armed Forces Journal International.

"Mie Askari mdachi: I am a German Askari", MHQ (Military History Quarterly), Summer 2007, Vol. 19, Number 4, pages 68-75. 

Several articles on espionage and counter-espionage in professional intelligence publications such as Intelligencer (Association of Former Intelligence Officers), The Olden Sphinx (The National Counter Intelligence Corps Association),

Books: “Boy Soldier: A German Teenager at the Nazi Twilight”, McFarland & Company, Inc. Publishers, of Jefferson, NC, published 2000 .

"The Making of a Spy - Memoir of a German Boy Soldier Turned American Army Intelligence Agent," McFarland & Company, Inc. Publishers, of Jefferson, NC, published 2010.

“Room 526: Espionage, Intrigue and Clandestine Brotherhood”.

Publisher:  The Saltmarsh Press, P.O. 21232, St. Simons Island, GA 31522; 2015; ISBN 978-0-9965235-1-6.  Price:  $16.95, plus $4.00 shipping and handling.

Lectured: 1988-2002, Counterintelligence and espionage instructions for employees of the offices of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Secretary of Defense (under contract with AVANCO International)

Awards: U. S. Army Commendation Medal, 1968

Central Intelligence Agency’s 1994 Studies in Intelligence Award, in “Recognition of an Outstanding Contribution to the Literature of Intelligence,” awarded by the Honorable James Woolsey, Director, Central Intelligence.