John Grombach

John "Frenchy" Grombach, born Jean Valentin de la Salle Grombach, was an American Olympic athlete, soldier, pioneer in radio cryptanalysis personnel management, public broadcaster and radio host, and divergent quick-tempered paranoid intelligence officer. He was involved in Allied efforts during World War II, and the efforts against the USSR during the Cold War. Director of one of the most secretive intelligence agencies in the world, the name of his intelligence organization, "The Pond," (even this is only a codename), was not known to the general public until an accidental disclosure of information in 2001. Initially recruited into the Office of the Coordinator of Information by Millard Preston Goodfellow, Chief of communications for William J. "Wild Bill" Donovan, the quick-tempered Grombach would eventually become one of Donovan's harshest critics. In later years, Grombach became a member of the U.S. Olympic Committee, writing and publishing the Olympic Guides for multiple years.

The Four Pillars of Grombach's approach to intelligence collection were:

Experience Secrecy and security Competition Using all available information

André worked in the dry goods import business, primarily between Mexico City, Tampico, San Salvador, Cuba and New Orleans. Andrés' company, called the "Grombach and Faisans Company," sold postcards from Louisiana, Texas, and other parts of the Caribbean. His family travelled back and forth to Paris, living there from 1905 to 1907 and 1912 to 1913. While at West Point, he was an accomplished athlete who had a love for fencing and boxing. From 1924 to 1928, he maintained a membership in the International Amateur Boxing Federation, matching up against opponents from all over the world. Some of his matches were covered by the New York and Brooklyn press. From 1926 to 1928, Grombach was sent by the G-2 to be headquartered in the Panama Canal Zone (at that time still an American colony) to perform undercover operations as the Assistant Provost Marshal. Goodfellow had been given a directive by Donovan to carry on with the establishment of a communications network for the Office of the Coordinator of Information (COI) that had begun with cryptanalysis efforts by Elizabeth Friedman and Kermit Roosevelt, Jr. Goodfellow recruited Grombach into the COI to help him establish this network not only because they had been friendly members of the 'Oh So Social' NYC elite - Grombach had written a seminal piece of military literature on the necessity of radio propaganda in the year 1940: The Army did already have an organization for intelligence gathering called the Counterintelligence Corps (CIC), having recently been helmed and perfected by FBN New York District Supervisor Garland H. Williams, but that unit was a much more investigational-structure organization not necessarily fit for the purposes desired by Strong, Kroner, McNarney, and Marshall. Today, we know that agency as "The Pond."

Grombach oversaw The Pond from his office in New York's Steinway Hall building, where he masqueraded as a public relations consultant for Philips, the Dutch company that approached the American government when their country got invaded by the Axis; Philips provided an effectively blank check for much of the war to fund Pond activities.

The POND, a codename at State Department for an intelligence operation founded in WWII, was conducted jointly by the War and State Departments. One Foreign Service Officer (FSO) in each US Embassy (in the countries covered by the POND) was the POND officer and was provided with secret funds under his control and secret communications direct to the Department. James McCargar was FSO in Budapest (1946-47) and was also the POND officer in Hungary at that time.

The Pond after World War II The FBI heard rumors of a strange operation on April 10, 1947, that was calling itself the "Commercial Research Bureau," run by Grombach during the war and onward, which they suspected of having ties to USSR spies. Field agents were deployed to investigate the rumors, and Grombach became enraged. An interesting exchange of conversation revolved between Grombach and the Agents, being paraphrased here:

"We informed him to keep this information confidential... He informed us to keep this information confidential... We informed him that we were... the FBI... He informed us that he was... someone important... but he couldn't actually tell us..."

Grombach became a private detective. According to everyone who knew him, or knew of him, he was a "Public relations and business expert." Despite their dislike of him, the Intelligence Community never once burned him.

Sports alt=Aged balding man, wearing crisp black suit and tie, white shirt, and a large patch that almost looks like a railroad police patch, but is the patch of the U.S. Olympic Team. Nothing behind the man, possibly the sky, as he looks into the distance behind the camera, possibly watching a sports match. John Grombach poses for a photo wearing the US Olympic Team patch on his lapel. Grombach was seemingly as obsessed with sports as he was obsessed with most other things in his life. He had remained a lifelong fastidious observer of all things boxing, and wrote several books on boxing and the Olympics, including Touch Football (1942), Saga of Sock: A Complete Story of Boxing (1949), and The Olympic Cavalcade.

He served on the United States Olympic Committee for several years.

Written works The Great Liquidator Military Journals Kill or Get Killed The Invisible War Other Journals SPUR Sportsman Adventure How to Box Radio Production History of Boxing Saga of Sock Saga of the Fist Olympic Cavalcade of Sports The Olympic Guide Touch Football