Author of The Emperor and the Spy
1948- Walt Disney’s office in Burbank, California: Standing with Walt (he didn’t like being called Mr. Disney) is his corporate pilot Marine Lt. Colonel Kelvin Bailey (retired), and Kelvin’s wife Gwen, who was something of a starlet in her day.
The author of this blog post was gifted this photo by Colonel Robert F. Warren, who was a mutual friend of Colonel Sidney Mashbir and Colonel Kelvin Bailey.
As an author and historian who has studied and written about Colonel Sidney Mashbir, it was my good fortune when Marine Colonel Robert Warren and his son Marine Captain William Warren contacted me three years ago in 2018 to discuss their close friendship with Colonel Mashbir decades earlier.
Shown below are a letter, a photo, and a four page document that were sent to me by Jody Baltz, the son-in-law of Robert Wilson Murphy, of one of those two soldiers.
Jody and his wife Lesa, who is the youngest of Wilson’s three daughters, contacted me to let me know that Colonel Mashbir was a hero not only to his father-in-law, but also to Jody and Lesa’s entire family, who deeply respected Colonel Mashbir for what he did.
Jody and Lesa live in Tullahoma, Tennessee.
Having studied and written about Colonel Sidney Mashbir, it was my good fortune when Robert Warren and his son William Warren contacted me in 2018 to discuss their close friendship with Colonel Mashbir many years earlier.
William and Robert generously shared various historical materials linked to Colonel Mashbir (1891-1973). This blog post will present a number of those items, as well as Robert and William’s recollections of Colonel Mashbir. Also included is biographic material about Robert and William Warren, who being younger than Mashbir, were inspired and influenced by Colonel Mashbir’s heroic dedication to our nation.
Osher Lifelong Learning Institute
University of California San Diego
Below is a link to this YouTube presentation – This one hour video was followed by a one hour non-recorded question and answer session with inquiries from the one hundred attendees. Hope you enjoy.
Osher Lifelong Learning Institute – University of California San Diego presentation
In 1922, Mashbir completed a dangerous mission in Vladivostok, Russia, preventing the outbreak of a regional war between Japan, China, and Russia, which might have expanded further!
The following year on September 1, 1923, the most destructive natural disaster in modern Japanese history occurred, The Great Kantō Earthquake (関東大震災, Kantō daishinsai), a Japanese natural disaster in the Kantō region of the island of Honshū. This earthquake destroyed Tokyo, the port city of Yokohama, surrounding prefectures of Chiba, Kanagawa, and Shizuoka, and approximately 140,000 people died. During the challenging first months following that major disaster, Mashbir spearheaded an American Medical Relief Effort to assist many of the injured Japanese – As part of this humanitarian process, Mashbir created the first English – Japanese Medical Translation Dictionary that was used by English speaking health care workers while treating Japanese speaking patients.
Two and one half years after the end of WWII, Colonel Mashbir felt the time was finally right to share some of the details of his many adventures in espionage
The below Saturday Evening Post magazines from March 27th, 1948, April 3rd, 1948, and April 10th, 1948 present a three part series about Colonel Mashbir, which has the same title as as Mashbir’s upcoming 1953 autobiography titled; I Was an American Spy.
It is an honor to announce the publication of:
The 65th Anniversary Edition of Colonel Sidney Forrester Mashbir’s exciting 1953 autobiography:
I WAS AN AMERICAN SPY
Besides being a fascinating story, Colonel Mashbir’s autobiography is a textbook in the art of espionage and counter-espionage.
Colonel Mashbir (1891-1973) led an adventurous life – At the age of thirteen, he began his military career as a bugle boy in the Arizona Guard, in the still untamed Arizona Territory. During 1914-1916, he served under General Funston and General Pershing, and went on daring missions across the U.S./Mexican border during the Mexican Revolution, attempting to maintain stability between those nations. He personally escorted the Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa to a peace parley with General Pershing in 1914.