[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 20]
[House]
[Page 27593]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                    POST OFFICE BOX 1142 RESOLUTION

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Moran) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. MORAN of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, from 1942 through the end of the 
Second World War, a top secret military intelligence service operated 
clandestinely on the shores of our own Potomac River. At Fort Hunt 
Park, along the GW Parkway, a secret installation operated silently in 
the shadows of our Nation's Capital.
  Known only by its mailing address, P.O. Box 1142, the men and women 
at this post provided the military intelligence that helped bring an 
end to World War II and gave the United States an early advantage in 
the Cold War.
  P.O. Box 1142 was an interrogation center. Throughout the war and its 
aftermath, the post processed and interrogated nearly 4,000 of the most 
important German prisoners of war.
  The men who performed the interrogations were drawn from across the 
country. The shared attribute is that they all spoke fluent German to 
be able to interact with their captives. Many were Jewish, to ensure 
their loyalty to America's mission. And most had friends and family 
battling on the front lines against Nazi Germany. To them, the war was 
personal and would impact their lives forever.
  Despite these circumstances, their interrogations never resorted to 
torture, used violence, or implemented cruel tactics to obtain the 
vital information required to support our Nation at war. Instead, their 
most effective interrogation technique was to start a dialogue to 
develop trust with their captives. They all talked with their captives, 
played card games, took walks, discussed their lives, and ultimately 
obtained the necessary information from their captives. Despite the 
apparent simplicity of these methods, these interrogations resulted in 
the discovery of most of Germany's secret weapons programs.
  P.O. Box 1142 learned about research to develop the atomic bomb, the 
jet engine and the V-2 rocket, all technologies that became essential 
informational components in waging the Cold War. The detainment and 
interrogation of high-ranking German officials, such as Reinhard 
Gehlen, who ran the German intelligence operations, advanced our 
military intelligence operations well beyond the Soviet Union's 
capabilities.
  In advancing the Nation's interests and uncovering vital secrets, the 
interrogators at P.O. Box 1142 never resorted to tactics such as sleep 
deprivation, electrical shock, or waterboarding. Their captives were 
never sexually abused, humiliated, or tortured. They never resorted to 
the methods that have recently branded our Nation so negatively. As a 
result of the war on terror, I'm afraid that America is now haunted by 
lasting images of Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay. The current 
intelligence community can learn from the men of P.O. Box 1142. For all 
our sake, I hope it's not too late.
  Despite the vital work that the interrogators at P.O. Box 1142 
performed, their activities remained closely held secrets by those who 
worked at the post. Many of these men never told family or loved ones. 
It wasn't until park rangers from the GW Memorial Parkway uncovered 
declassified documents and met former officers of P.O. Box 1142 that 
the operations that occurred at Fort Hunt Park during World War II 
became known.
  Under the encouragement of the National Park Service, these park 
rangers identified veterans of P.O. Box 1142. They conducted 
professional oral history interviews. The deeper the park rangers dug, 
the more obvious it became they had discovered a remarkable story that 
had remained unrecognized by the officers because of their oath of 
secrecy.
  After 2 years of work, the National Park Service decided it was time 
for the men of P.O. Box 1142 to finally be acknowledged. On October 5 
and 6, the National Park Service held the first-ever reunion of the 
veterans of P.O. Box 1142 at Fort Hunt Park. The veterans raised the 
American flag in the post's original flag pole setting and memorialized 
the grounds.
  Today, I'm proud to play a small part in giving justified credit for 
the tremendous work performed at P.O. Box 1142. Along with my northern 
Virginia colleagues, Congressmen Tom Davis and Frank Wolf, I'm 
introducing a long, overdue resolution to honor the men of P.O. Box 
1142.
  Mr. Speaker, I extend my appreciation to these veterans. The Nation 
owes a great debt to them for their sacrifice to our Nation during a 
time of war for their pursuit of critical intelligence, while 
maintaining the highest level of integrity and America's moral values, 
and for their intrepid actions that have, until very recently, gone 
unacknowledged.

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