Jerry M. Sage

Jerome Michael Sage, who mostly went by the name Jerry M. Sage, was a Canadian-born American soldier, special forces operator, and spy, prisoner of war during World War II. He was notable for over 15 prison escape attempts leading to 15 sentences in solitary confinement, earning him the name "Cooler King," until his final successful escape. Sage was the inspiration for Steve McQueen's character in The Great Escape. Sage stayed in the Army and also fought in the Korean War and Vietnam War. He is considered one of the fathers of United States Army Special Forces. One of the phases of the schoolhouse for special operators at Fort Bragg, the John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School, is named Robin Sage, partially in his memory.

Early life Sage was born 1917 in British Columbia and grew up mostly in Indianapolis, Indiana, playing football and going to house parties while he was in high school.

Sage entered the Army in 1938 through the R.O.T.C. program of Washington State University, where he graduated with a Phi Beta Kappa key.

After college, he worked for three and a half years at Procter & Gamble Distributing Company. Before entering the Army, he was the senior salesman for the middle Pacific region; Northern California, San Francisco, and Hawaii.

He first reported to active duty with the Army at the Presidio of San Francisco a little before Thanksgiving of 1941. For a few weeks, he worked in the field bakery platoon.

World War II

Wild Bill and the 'Glorious Amateurs' In December 1941, with the attack on Pearl Harbor, Sage was transferred to Fort Lewis, Washington, to prepare for deployment to the Pacific against the Japanese. He trained his bakery platoon in fighting infantry tactics, but within a few weeks, he received orders to report to the Q Building at the E Street Complex in Washington, D.C.

Sage was recruited into an organization run by William J. "Wild Bill" Donovan called the Office of the Coordinator of Information, which was the precursor to the Office of Strategic Services. He was one the first men from the Special Operations Branch selected by Millard Preston Goodfellow, David K. E. Bruce, and Garland H. Williams to attend a training camp set up by the British Special Operations Executive outside of Toronto, Canada called Camp X.

The British gave him the nickname "Dagger," which he carried for the rest of his career.

Sage unsuccessfully attempted to escape 15 times, leading to 15 separate incarcerations in solitary confinement in "the cooler," giving him the nickname "Cooler King." His most famous attempt was as a part of the "Great Escape," where he and many others worked for 15 months on the significant three-tunnel project.

Actor Steve McQueen portrayed a character based on Jerry and a mixture of other men in the movie, The Great Escape.

Escape from Oflag 64 Sage was eventually transferred to the prison camp called Oflag 64, where he finally managed his escape - through Poland, into Ukraine down to Odessa, and then finally back into the custody of the OSS in Egypt 1945.