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by Erin E. Thompson, USAICoE Staff Historian
LIEUTENANT COLONEL REX APPLEGATE
(21 June 1914 – 14 July 1998)
On 14 July 1998, Lt. Col. (ret.) Rex Applegate passed away after a lengthy career as an intelligence officer and combat expert. He served as a close combat instructor for the Counter Intelligence Corps (CIC) and Office of Strategic Services (OSS), a riot control consultant in Latin America, and inspired the creation of fictional spy James Bond.
Born on 21 June 1914 in Yoncalla, Oregon, Rex Applegate stood six-foot-three-inches tall and was an expert marksman at a young age. He graduated from the University of Oregon in 1940 and soon after was commissioned a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army and assigned to the 209th Military Police Company. In January 1942, Applegate attended the intelligence course held at the CIC School in Chicago. [See This Week in MI History #15 10 November 1941]
Sometime between 1942–1943, Col. (later Maj. Gen.) William J. Donovan recruited Applegate to run the training school for OSS agents in the Catoctin Mountains, Maryland, inconspicuously named “Area B.” The camp was situated close to the presidential retreat “Shangri-La,” which later became Camp David. While stationed at the camp, Applegate sometimes served as a bodyguard for President Franklin D. Roosevelt during meetings with leaders such as British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. A lung condition prohibited Applegate from being assigned to combat duty during the war, but this did not deter Applegate from traveling to England to collaborate with British fighting expert William E. Fairbairn in developing a specialized combat style for OSS operatives. Applegate used these techniques to coordinate all clandestine, close-combat OSS missions. Ian Fleming’s biographer, John Pearson, later heralded Applegate as a source of inspiration for the author’s iconic spy-hero, James Bond.
The Military Intelligence Training Center (MITC) at Camp Ritchie opened in 1942 next door to Area B. [See This Week in MI History #242 19 June 1942] The proximity to the intelligence school allowed Applegate, now a lieutenant colonel, to oversee close combat training for CIC agents there. According to MITC historian Beverly Driver Eddy, Applegate “was given free rein at Ritchie to duplicate and expand upon his OSS training methods, and to design realistic training aids at the camps.” His exercises were designed to “[prepare] the men, in a controlled environment, for the stressful situations they might encounter on the battlefield” and identify agents “who were psychologically unsuited for combat.” Many Ritchie veterans later credited the exercises for preparing them for service in the European Theater.
In 1943, Applegate published his first book as section chief of the Combat Section, MITC. "Kill or Get Killed" was a textbook on hand-to-hand combat (the 1976 updated edition was adopted by the U.S. Marine Corps as "Fleet Marine Force Reference Publication 12-80" in 1991). After the war, Applegate retired as a lieutenant colonel with the Military Intelligence Division. For the next two decades, he served as an advisor on riot control for the Mexican government, which later awarded him the title Honorary General. He also instructed U.S. police officers on riot control and civil disturbances in the 1960s. His second book, Riot Control: Materiel and Techniques, was published in 1969 and outlined the tactics he employed in training these officers. He went on to publish several more books on his experience and expertise with close combat; he also designed the Applegate-Fairbairn fighting knife and the Applegate-Fairbairn Combat Smatchet, both modified versions of weapons developed by his mentor and colleague during World War II.
In 1998, Applegate was scheduled to speak at a law enforcement convention on gunfighting techniques when he suffered a heart attack in his hotel room, after which he contracted pneumonia. He passed away on 14 July 1998 at the age of eighty-four.
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| Date Taken: | 07.12.2024 |
| Date Posted: | 07.12.2024 17:49 |
| Story ID: | 476096 |
| Location: | US |
| Web Views: | 69 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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