William Joseph “Wild Bill” Donovan, New York

Gratitude 250

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William Joseph “Wild Bill” Donovan, New York<br>Medal Of Honor, WWI

Elizabeth Turner<br>May 28, 2026

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William Joseph “Wild Bill” Donovan stands among the most extraordinary public figures that New York gave to our nation. A son of Buffalo, New York his life carried him from the trenches of World War I to the very foundations of modern American intelligence. Few well-known men embodied courage, intellect, patriotism, and relentless determination as completely as he did.

Born in Buffalo on New Year’s Day, 1883, Donovan rose from the son of Irish-American working-class roots to become one of the most decorated military officers in United States history. Yet those who served under him remembered him less for his medals than for the fearless example he set in combat. During World War I, serving with the legendary “Fighting 69th” - later redesignated the 165th Infantry Regiment of the Rainbow Division - Donovan became known for aggressive frontline leadership that inspired exhausted and battered soldiers to keep moving forward under impossible conditions.<br>Thanks for reading Gratitude 250! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

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It was during World War I that Donovan earned the nickname that would follow him for the rest of his life: “Wild Bill.”<br>The name did not emerge from recklessness, but from extraordinary endurance, relentless standards, and a refusal to demand anything of his men that he would not demand of himself.

According to Douglas Waller, author of Wild Bill Donovan: The Spymaster Who Created the OSS and Modern American Espionage, the story went something like this:

“After once running them [the troops in his unit in Europe during World War I] in full packs on a three-mile obstacle course over walls, under barbed wire, through icy streams, and up and down hills, the men collapsed gasping for air. ‘<br>What the hell’s the matter with you guys?’ demanded Donovan, who had just turned thirty-five and carried the same load. ‘I haven’t lost my breath.’ A trooper in the back whom Donovan couldn’t see shouted: ‘But hell, we are not as wild as you are, Bill.’<br>From that day on, ‘Wild Bill’ stuck. Donovan professed annoyance with the nickname because it ran counter to the quiet, intense image he wanted to project. But Ruth [his wife] knew that deep down he loved it.”

In many ways, the nickname stayed with him because it reflected a deeper truth. Donovan possessed an intensity that seemed to drive him continually toward the front line - toward danger, responsibility, and action

And nowhere was that intensity more visible than during the Meuse-Argonne Offensive, on October 14–15, 1918, when Donovan repeatedly moved through machine-gun fire to rally his shattered American troops and lead attacks against heavily fortified German positions.

The Americans were suffering devastating casualties beneath machine-gun fire, yet Donovan repeatedly led them through exposed positions, reorganizing shattered platoons and driving the assault forward. Even after machine-gun bullets tore into his leg, he refused evacuation and remained with his men until they reached safer ground. For those actions, he received the Medal of Honor

But the story of “Wild Bill” Donovan did not end in the trenches of France.<br>During World War II, Donovan became one of the principal architects of America’s modern intelligence system. Recognizing that the United States needed coordinated intelligence, espionage, sabotage, and resistance operations to confront the Axis powers, he led the creation of the Office of Strategic Services - the OSS - the direct predecessor to the modern CIA.<br>Donovan pushed for coordinated espionage, sabotage operations, and resistance support in Nazi-occupied Europe and Asia: ideas that were quite new for the U.S. at the time. Under Donovan’s leadership, the OSS conducted covert operations across Europe and Asia, supported resistance fighters behind enemy lines, gathered critical intelligence, and helped shape the future of American national security.

Through the OSS, Donovan was also instrumental in laying foundations that would later help shape America’s modern special operations forces.<br>Many of the unconventional warfare concepts developed under his leadership - sabotage operations, covert insertions, intelligence gathering, and support for resistance movements behind enemy lines - would influence generations of American special operations doctrine long after World War II ended.<br>He was not merely a strategist sitting safely behind a desk. Donovan repeatedly traveled into war zones himself, visited front lines, crossed battlefields under fire, and personally inspected operations throughout Europe and Asia. Even in World War II - decades after his Medal of Honor actions - he remained a man drawn toward danger rather than away from it.<br>Donovan’s intensity and unconventional instincts became legendary within...