Walter Mess | WW II American spy, 98

Walter Mess, 98, an American spy who captained a speedboat that ferried agents to and from secret missions in the China-Burma-India theater of World War II, died May 26 in Alexandria, Va. The cause was end-stage chronic renal failure, said his son, Walter Mess Jr.

Mr. Mess, who kept mum about his wartime experiences until the 1990s, for nearly 30 years was chairman of the Northern Virginia Regional Park Authority, of which he was a founding member.

During World War II, he was recruited to the Office of Strategic Services, a forerunner of the CIA, based in large part on his boating skills. He served in a maritime unit that performed clandestine missions in enemy waters - a model for the Navy SEALs of later decades.

The OSS had sent Mr. Mess to Burma by 1944, and he was among an estimated several hundred skippers who dropped off agents and combat swimmers to gather information about enemy targets in anticipation of larger landings.

"Shooting wasn't our mission. Our mission was taxi driver, our mission was not to fight, but we were prepared to do it," Mess explained to espionage historian Patrick O'Donnell.

"Somewhere along the way, I got some Bronze Stars and a lot of other fancy things, but none of that really matters," Mr. Mess told the Washington Times in 2007. "I had a good time. The reason I had a good time was because I lived on the edge for a while." - Washington Post