| "Deadliest Colonel" dies at age 95
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Carl F. Eifler's life was often an exercise in rule breaking, but more often than not, the result was a grateful nation. He was born in Los Angeles, Calif., on June 27, 1906. He dropped out of school, lied about his age and, with his mother's assistance, joined the U.S. Army before most teens had their driver's license. Eifler served in the Philippines for a year until his father became ill and his mother told authorities how old he really was—17. He was promptly discharged.After returning to California, Eifler lied | | On customs duty with the Army in Hawaii, 1937. Eifler is second from left.
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about his age again and joined the Los Angeles police department. When LAPD found out, he was fired. He then joined the Newport Beach Police Department. He also enlisted in the Army reserve, completed officer training through a correspondence course, and became a commissioned officer. In 1928, at age 22, Eifler went to work for the U.S. Customs Service as a patrol officer on the border between California and Mexico. He served as an undercover Customs agent in Mexico during the prohibition era. In 1936, Eifler was promoted to chief inspector and transferred to Honolulu, Hawaii. In March of 1941, Eifler was recalled to active duty where he commanded the 111th Military Police Company that guarded 400 alien detainees at Sand Island in Honolulu. A month after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, Eifler was ordered to report to the Coordinator of Information in Washington, D.C., the agency that became the Office of Strategic Services, the OSS. He commanded Detachment 101 in Burma during World War II, an outfit that operated behind Japanese lines using sabotage, and commando warfare. Detachment 101 also aided Burmese natives, especially the Kachin tribesmen, in their fight against the Japanese.Colonel Eifler was transferred out of Burma in 1943 to head a secret mission into Germany. His mission was to abduct a German physicist who was working on developing an atomic bomb. Eifler was to enter Germany by way of Switzerland. His cover story was a simple one&mdas;how customs procedures operated between a neutral nation and a country at war. The military canceled the mission when U.S. scientists developed their own atomic bomb.After retiring from the Army in October 1947, Eifler returned to the Customs Service in Hawaii as the Deputy Collector of Customs. He went back to college in 1952, and earned degrees in psychology and Divinity from Jackson College, Hawaii. After graduation, he retired from the Customs Service and moved with his family to California. In 1963, he received a Ph.D. in psychology from the Illinois Institute of Technology and worked as a clinical psychologist in California until his retirement.After the war, Detachment 101, Eifler's outfit, received a Presidential Unit Citation for its actions. Eifler was awarded the American Air Medal, a Purple Heart, and three Legion of Merit awards for his bravery. He was inducted into the Military Intelligence Hall of Fame by former President George Bush in 1988. In 1975, Eifler's exploits were outlined in a biography, The Deadliest Colonel, written by Thomas Moon. When Carl Eifler died on April 8, 2002, in Salinas, Calif., he was survived by a son, a sister, three grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren. |
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