11 Apr WWII ESPIONAGE [S]HERO “TEAMWORK, TONE, TENACITY” LEADERSHIP: VIRGINIA HALL

Virginia Hall was born on April 6, 1906.  She was the most highly decorated American woman in WWII; awarded the US Distinguished Service Cross for actions in Europe against the Nazis.  Hall was an American spy who worked with the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) and its British equivalent in France during World War II.  She was an expert in espionage, sabotage and reconnaissance against Germany.  After the war, Hall worked for the CIA.  Her amazing story and inspirational leadership style included:

• TEAMWORK:  Hall was a former U.S. Consular Service employee in several European locations during the 1930’s.  After leaving that position she became a French Army ambulance driver. Following the defeat of France in June 1940, Hall made her way to Spain where, she was introduced to members of the British Special Operations Executive (SOE) – the equivalent of the American OSS. She arrived in Lyon, France in August 1941 to work with clandestine British forces, the first female agent to take up residence in that country. Over the next 15 months, she became an expert at support operations – organizing resistance movements; supplying agents with money, weapons, and supplies; helping downed airmen to escape; offering safe houses and medical assistance to wounded agents and pilots. She had to flee France in November 1942 to avoid capture by the Nazis.  She returned to France as a wireless operator for the OSS in March 1944. Working in territory still occupied by the German Army and mostly without the assistance of other OSS agents, she supplied arms, training, and direction to French resistance groups, called “Maquisards,” especially in Haute-Loire (south central France)  where the Maquis cleared the Department of German soldiers prior to the arrival of the US Army in September 1944.  While in France, Hall met and fell in love with an OSS Lieutenant Paul Goillot. In 1957, the couple married and retired to a farm in Maryland where she lived until her death in 1982 

• TONE:  The Germans gave her the nickname Artemis (the Greek Goddess of the Hunt), and the Gestapo considered her “the most dangerous of all Allied spies.”  Always stoic and tight-lipped on the battlefield and with the CIA after the war, Hall was fond of saying “Many of my friends were killed for talking too much.” 

• TENACITY:  Having lost part of her leg in a hunting accident, Hall used a prosthesis she named “Cuthbert.” She was also known as “The Limping Lady” by the Germans.  The OSS Director General Donovan personally awarded her Distinguished Service Cross in 1945.  

In addition to her Distinguished Service Cross, Hall was made an honorary Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE), and was awarded the Croix de Guerre with Palme by France. Because of her humility and dedication to protecting national secrets, Hall did not talk and write about her World War II experiences.  As a result, her story slipped into obscurity for the past half century.   It is now rightfully receiving increased attention due to new documentation of her intrepid accomplishments, remarkable heroism and “T3” leadership in combat conditions.  As a result, Virginia Hall’s Distinguished Service Cross is currently being reviewed for potential upgrade to our nation’s highest combat honor; the Medal of Honor.  

– Rear Admiral Paul Becker, USN (Ret) is a leadership expert.  He is the CEO of The Becker T3 Group, a platform for his motivational and national security keynote speaking. A former Naval Intelligence Officer, he’s successfully led large, diverse, high-performing teams afloat and ashore in peace, crisis and combat.  In 2016, The Naval Intelligence Community established “The Rear Admiral Becker ‘Teamwork, Tone, Tenacity Award for Leadership” in his honor.  Paul is also the President of the U.S. Naval Academy’s Non-Profit “Friends of the Jewish Chapel”