Eugene M. Waith

Eugene M. Waith
Personal details
Born	1912
Died	2007
Nativity	United States
Religion	Protestant
Military service
Allegiance	United States
Branch	United States Army
ASN	31335121
Rank	Private First Class
Camp Ritchie	Class 14 (2 December 1943 – 31 January 1944)
Section	7A
Specialty	OSS X-2

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Eugene M. Waith (1912–2007) was a Yale English instructor and Ritchie Boy (Class 14) who served in OSS X-2 in Europe and later taught English literature at Yale.

Biography

Eugene M. Waith was born in 1912. An instructor in English at Yale, he was drafted in the summer of 1943 and, because of his French and German, was sent to Camp Ritchie, Maryland (Class 14), for intelligence training after initially being slotted as a message-center clerk. The history of the 557th Field Artillery Battalion records that Pfc. Eugene Waith, the battalion historian, left for Camp Ritchie on 16 November.

Waith was recruited into OSS X-2 in June 1944 in England, trained in the interpretation of intercepts, and attached to SHAEF. He entered Paris behind the advancing armies and served as a controller of enemy agents and interrogator—among the stronger X-2 controllers in France, according to Robin Winks’s Cloak & Gown. After the war he returned to Yale as a professor of English literature. He died in 2007.

Research notes

No notes were in the source row. Add what you know.

Gallery

• 
  Robin W. Winks, Cloak & Gown, p. 302 — Eugene Waith / Camp Ritchie / X-2 (RB Archive).
• 
  Robin W. Winks, Cloak & Gown, p. 303 (RB Archive).

Technical record

Field	Imported value
Approx Age at Death	95
Class_ASN	31335121
Class_Name	WAITH, Eugene M.
match_method	asn_exact_name_exact
row_source	both

Timeline

• 1912 — Born.
• Prewar / early war — Instructor in English, Yale.
• Summer 1943 — Drafted; French/German language skills noted.
• 16 November 1943 — Left 557th Field Artillery Battalion for Camp Ritchie (Class 14).
• June 1944 — Recruited into OSS X-2 in England; SHAEF attachment; later Paris / agent control.
• Postwar — Professor of English literature, Yale.
• 2007 — Died.

Sources

• Legacy.com obituary listing: Eugene Waith
• Yale News in memoriam: Eugene M. Waith
• History of the 557th Field Artillery Battalion — Pfc. Eugene Waith transferred to Camp Ritchie, 16 November (RB Archive PDF).
• Robin W. Winks, Cloak & Gown: Scholars in the Secret War, 1939–1961 (pp. 302–303 excerpt).
• Camp Ritchie Museum, Inc. (The Ritchie History Museum), Classes 1–31 roster data
• Dan Gross research spreadsheets, including original Excel timeline/roster work, combined with other research and records
• NARA World War II Army enlistment records (where a NARA ASN is present)
• 1940 U.S. Census (where a census match is present)