Philemon Andrews Saint Amant was named after his grandfather, Philemon Hawkins Andrews, a descendant of Sir John Hawkins [Annotator's Note: also spelled Hawkyns, English naval commander and administrator from 1562 to 1595]. Saint Amant was born in Natchitoches [Annotator's Note: Natchitoches, Louisiana] in February 1918. His father was teaching in Natchitoches at the time. His father met his mother in North Carolina. When he was growing up his father quit teaching and they moved to Florida. His father had taught engineering in North Carolina. His oldest sister was born in the territory of Arizona in 1908. His father was from Baton Rouge [Annotator's Note: Baton Rouge, Louisiana]. His grandfather fought in the Civil War [Annotator's Note: American Civil War, 1861 to 1865]. His mother was a housewife. It was difficult during his college age. The Depression [Annotator's Note: the Great Depression was a global economic depression that lasted from 1929 through 1939 in the United States] started in 1929 when the stock market fell. His father went into the insurance business and moved to Donaldsonville, Louisiana. His grandfather was 15 out of 25 children.

Philemon Andrews Saint Amant graduated high school in 1935 in Baton Rouge [Annotator's Note: Baton Rouge, Louisiana]. Then he went straight into college. He joined the ROTC [Annotator's Note: Reserve Officer Training Corps] because he wanted to be in the Army. He would listen to Hitler's [Annotator's Note: German dictator Adolf Hitler] speeches on the radio. He was in his third year in the Army stationed at Camp Shelby [Annotator's Note: in Hattiesburg, Mississippi] when Pearl Harbor was attacked [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941]. He was transferred from Mississippi to New Orleans [Annotator's Note: New Orleans, Louisiana]. He graduated college in 1939. He had four years of military training at the time. He was sent to Fort Benning [Annotator's Note: Fort Benning, Georgia] for training. When he graduated from LSU [Annotator's Note: Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana] he was commissioned a second lieutenant in the reserve. Then he went to Fort Bragg [Annotator's Note: Fort Bragg, North Carolina]. They had three artillery units there. He was in the 17th [Annotator's Note: 17th Field Artillery Regiment, 13th Field Artillery Brigade] when the war started.

Philemon Andrews Saint Amant was assigned to the 190th Field Artillery Regiment of Pennsylvania [Annotator's Note: Pennsylvania National Guard]. They were stationed at Camp Shelby [Annotator's Note: in Hattiesburg, Mississippi]. Saint Amant was in his third year serving in the Regular Army [Annotator's Note: Regular Army of the United States, now a component of the United States Army]. He was selected to fill the ranks of the 190th. He was promoted to first lieutenant. Then they were sent to North Carolina where they trained to go overseas. He went overseas in August 1942. They went over on the Queen Elizabeth [Annotator's Note: RMS Queen Elizabeth] unescorted. He was married in 1940 while at Fort Bragg [Annotator's Note: Fort Bragg, North Carolina]. His first son was born in October 1941. He landed in Scotland. They had to be taken off the ship because the ship was too big. Then they took another ship to England. They had to march carrying their footlockers. From August [Annotator's Note: August 1943] to December [Annotator's Note: December 1943] they were in Ireland. They were staying in a castle that had 55 rooms in it. The officers stayed in the castle and the enlisted men stayed in huts. They had artillery training. While they were in Ireland they fired on land and in the sea. They got some nights off and went into town to see the sights. They would go into Glasgow [Annotator's Note: Glasgow, Scotland].

Philemon Andrews Saint Amant was in the British Isles [Annotator's Note: the United Kingdom, with the 190th Field Artillery Battalion], and they sent the M1 guns [Annotator's Note: M114 155mm howitzer or 155mm Howitzer M1, towed howitzer, nicknamed Long Tom] ahead of them. He was left in charge of the rest of the troops. They followed on New Year's Day [Annotator's Note: 1 January 1943] and landed in Africa first with the guns. They occupied a place where the British troops had vacated. They grew their own crops there. The Americans were eating better food than the British. They had bicycles they could ride into town. It was a segregated Army at the time. The white troops were in one organization and the negro [Annotator's Note: a term for a person of Black African ancestry] troops were in another with white officers. The negro troops did not go into town on the same nights as the white troops. Before the invasion [Annotator's Note: D-Day; the Allied invasion of Normandy, France on 6 June 1944], Saint Amant went back to the United States to serve in the OSS [Annotator's Note: Office of Strategic Services; pre-runner to today's Central Intelligence Agency or CIA]. He went back on the Queen Mary [Annotator's Note: RMS Queen Mary] along with Churchill [Annotator's Note: Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill; Prime Minister, United Kingdom, 1940 to 1945] and his whole staff. The OSS was secret at the time, and he did not know where he was going. When he got there, he was in the 244 Unit [Annotator's Note: unable to identify]. Saint Amant knew French because he took it in school.

Philemon Andrews Saint Amant went to North Carolina for OSS [Annotator's Note: Office of Strategic Services; pre-runner to today's Central Intelligence Agency or CIA] training. He was told he would be in a special unit. He was asked if he would take parachute training, jump behind enemy lines, and if he could speak French. He said yes to all the questions. They were sent to Fort Meade [Annotator's Note: Fort George G. Meade in Anne Arundel County, Maryland]. From there they were supposed to go to Europe as replacements. Saint Amant told them he was supposed to go to a special unit and not back to Europe. He went down to Washington [Annotator's Note: Washington, D.C.] to speak to the commanders at the Artillery headquarters to ask about the special unit he was supposed to be in. He was told to report back to Fort Meade. Saint Amant had to report to the Assistant Chief of Staff. He was issued weapons. They were transferred to the Congressional Country Club [Annotator's Note: in Bethesda, Maryland] for OSS training. They boarded the Queen Elizabeth [Annotator's Note: RMS Queen Elizabeth] and traveled unescorted. They would make zigzags [Annotator's Note: a naval anti-submarine maneuver] in the water. They came up the coast of France and landed in Ireland. From there they went to London [Annotator's Note: London, England].

Philemon Andrews Saint Amant landed in London [Annotator's Note: London, England]. There were troops fighting in North Africa. The Canadians had a force similar to the OSS [Annotator's Note: Office of Strategic Services; pre-runner to today's Central Intelligence Agency or CIA] that landed on the coast of France. Saint Amant received his training in London. They followed the German Army and the American Army in Africa. They traveled all over England. They did not send OSS people in until the landing at Normandy [Annotator's Note: D-Day; the Allied invasion of Normandy, France on 6 June 1944]. They had to delay due to the weather. The fleet was tremendous. The Germans were overseeing the beach. One guy kept lighting a cigarette on the beach. The sergeant told him to put it out immediately. Every night the Germans would send bombers over to London. All the buildings had watchmen on the roofs. They went to headquarters every day for their training.

Philemon Andrews Saint Amant was told to not speak about the OSS [Annotator's Note: Office of Strategic Services; pre-runner to today's Central Intelligence Agency or CIA]. They had to tell people they were part of the embassy. He met another American there who was from Louisiana as well. He stayed in their house after the war. Saint Amant was an assistant operations officer. Everyone gathered intelligence. They were stationed out of London [Annotator's Note: London, England]. The troops would contact London and then they would broadcast it in code. They would get information from behind German lines. His unit would communicate with London. Each group wanted to run the government of France after the war. One group was supported by the Russians. Saint Amant's unit landed on Utah Beach [Annotator's Note: Utah Beach, Normandy, France]. His unit was a detachment on the edge of headquarters. He was transferred to the 1st Army Group [Annotator's Note: First United States Army Group]. They occupied a house. He slept on a pile of grain.

Philemon Andrews Saint Amant saw some graves of members of the German Army and some of them were Jewish. Saint Amant's unit moved to Versailles [Annotator's Note: Versailles, France], and then they moved to Paris [Annotator's Note: Paris, France]. The French people were welcoming and spoke some good English. Saint Amant talked with an old Frenchman in French. Paris was all American and they were living in French civilian quarters. The combat engineers were building a pontoon bridge across the river. Saint Amant's unit was going to go behind German lines. There was some tension between the two groups of Frenchmen on who would run the French government after the war. At this time Saint Amant had an OSS [Annotator's Note: Office of Strategic Services; pre-runner to today's Central Intelligence Agency or CIA] pass signed by Eisenhower's [Annotator's Note: General of the Army Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower, Supreme Commander, Allied Expeditionary Force; 34th President of the United States] staff. The pass was written in four languages. The pass let Saint Amant go anywhere he needed to go by order of General Eisenhower. They crossed the pontoon bridge, and no one was on the other side. They did not cross the German lines.

Philemon Andrews Saint Amant was one of the first to arrive at the German lines [Annotator's Note: as a member of the OSS, Office of Strategic Services; pre-runner to today's Central Intelligence Agency or CIA]. The Germans had backed off. Saint Amant was trying to get the French to get their commandant. He wanted to interview everyone in the prison. There were men, little boys, and some women in the prison. He was looking for a man named Vulcan [Annotator's Note: spelling uncertain]. None of the prisoners knew him. One of the guards told Saint Amant they would take him to the commandant's house. They told him the commandant would not come down until the morning. There were women in a cell that had been with the German soldiers. When the commandant came in the morning, he knew who they were looking for, but he did not know where he was. Saint Amant went to Vulcan's house. Vulcan's mother was there and told them he would be home soon. By now the Americans had arrived and they set up tents to take care of people and their forward troops. The Americans were filling in the spaces the Germans had left. Saint Amant went back to Paris [Annotator's Note: Paris, France] and Vulcan had beat him there.

Philemon Andrews Saint Amant [Annotator's Note: a member of the OSS, Office of Strategic Services; pre-runner to today's Central Intelligence Agency or CIA] was in Paris [Annotator's Note: Paris, France]. The Americans had pushed on into the French-speaking part of Belgium. When they ran out of French territory, they did not need the French contingency anymore. The Americans were coming in and the Germans broke through the lines. Saint Amant was sent to OSS [Annotator's Note: Office of Strategic Services; pre-runner to today's Central Intelligence Agency or CIA] jump school. The British would jump through a hole in the floor instead of out a door. In France, they never jumped. The regular 82nd [Annotator's Note: 82nd Airborne Division] and 101st Airborne [Annotator's Note: 101st Airborne Division] jumped at night. This was before the landing on the beaches [Annotator's Note: D-Day; the Allied invasion of Normandy, France on 6 June 1944]. When they went back to the United States they were still in the OSS. They were studying the Japanese language. They went through the whole course, and they were told they were going to Japan. Saint Amant led his class in Japanese. He was not good at it. He was in the United States at the end of the war. He wanted to retire from the Army. At that time they had 20 years of active-duty retirement. He was studying Polish, but he wanted to study Russian. In the OSS they were sent to Washington [Annotator's Note: Washington, D.C.] to study Japanese. Then they were sent to the West Coast. He went to the Catalina Islands [Annotator's Note: Channel Islands, California]. They were told if they caught the goats, they could eat them. They had to make their own fishing rods.

Philemon Andrews Saint Amant went to Washington [Annotator's Note: Washington, D.C.] and then went over to Africa [Annotator's Note: at the beginning of World War 2]. Then he was sent back to Europe after the war in the Counterintelligence Corps. They disbanded the OSS [Annotator's Note: Office of Strategic Services; pre-runner to today's Central Intelligence Agency or CIA] and were starting the CIA [Annotator's Note: Central Intelligence Agency]. He did not want to join because he could not receive promotions like he would in the Regular Army [Annotator's Note: Regular Army of the United States, now a component of the United States Army]. He was a captain at this time. He was dropped into Japanese territory. He left the Army in 1959 in August. Serving in the war was the most exciting part of his adult life. He learned the Polish language and then he was shipped to Germany. World War 2 changed Europe. It changed the face of Europe. He studied the German language. He worked in Germany for the CIC [Annotator's Note: Counterintelligence Corps].