The Winking Fox: Twenty-Two Years in Military Intelligence

Defourneaus, Rene J.

He was born in France in small town close to the Swiss Border.

At the age of 18, with his Mother and Sister he emigrated to the United States in 1939 shortly before the start of WWII.

He joined the U.S. Army in 1943, became an Intelligence specialist. Shortly after reaching England he was recruited by OSS, trained by the British Special Operation Executive (SOE) and dropped in France behind the German lines to train, organize French resistance units and conduct intelligence operations.

Once his territory was liberated he returned to the USA and was assigned to China-Burma-India (CBI) Theater with duty in India, Ceylon, and China. As the second in Command of a six men team he parachuted in Indo-china behind the Japanese lines to train a local guerrilla group headed by Ho Chi Minh and General Vo Nguyên Giap. He and his team entered Hanoi with Ho shortly after the end of the war.

Subsequently, following a short period as a civilian, he was recalled to active duty status and assigned to the U.S. Army Counterintelligence Corps with assignments in the United States, Germany, and as an instructor at the CIC School of Fort Holabird.

In 1956 he was transferred to the U.S. Army Pacific Command with duty in Laos, Okinawa, and Japan as an Intelligence Officer. He remained there until November 1963 when he was assigned to Fort Harrison at Indianapolis as the Special Agent in Charge of an Intelligence unit. This was his last post prior to his retirement in 1965 after twenty two years of active duty as an Army Intelligence officer.

As a licensed private investigator he created an agency dealing primarily with the investigation of stock brokers. At the same time he became a partner of Mid-America International Corp., an import-export company. In 1979 after the death of his partner, Robert P. Fortune, he became the sole owner and he phased out his investigative agency.

In January 1988, he sold his company and became a consultant in international trade. His main activities were with Curtis TradeGroup Inc. a division of Servaas Inc.

In July 1993, he became a director of Curtis TradeGroup Inc. now an independent company after its separation from Servaas Inc.

A docudrama about the Deer Team is being considered by Barry Spikings the producer/director of the film Beyond Rangoon.

The Winking Fox, recently published, details his 22 years of military service.