He is also known for his exploits as an OSS officer during World War II, when he parachuted into France to coordinate the French Resistance and organizing an operation intended to capture Adolf Hitler.

Bank was assigned to SO and the Operational Group Command, and on July 31, 1944, led the Jedburgh Team PACKARD, parachuting into Lozère Department of France and linking up with French Resistance.

Outfitted with SS uniforms and trained for "raid and snatch" missions, they were intended for insertion into the expected "Alpine Redoubt" on the Austrian/German border, where senior Nazi officials were planning to make their last stand against the advancing Allied armies.

It is not known whether Bank's recommendations reached President Harry S. Truman, but American policy was contrary: Ho was a long-time Communist, having joined the party in the 1920s in Paris, and therefore was considered unacceptable as leader of a coalition government.

These events reached a climax on September 27, 1945, when a British party, led by Peter Kemp crossed the Mekong from their base in northeast Thailand and were surrounded by an armed Viet Minh patrol, who demanded the surrender of a French lieutenant.

[5][6] After the war Bank remained in the Army and became a leading advocate for the formation of a professional special forces (unconventional warfare) division, equivalent to the SO branch of OSS.

Along with Colonel Russell W. Volckmann, who had been a guerrilla in the Philippines, they argued for deploying this force behind the "Iron Curtain," in the Eastern European nations dominated by the Soviet Union, where there was a real possibility of a local resistance movement arising.

In establishing the 10th, he was as flexible as he had been with "Iron Cross", drawing upon former members of the "1st Special Service Force" known as the Devil's Brigade, as well as veterans of the OSS, the Parachute Infantry units, and guerrilla elements in the Pacific.

Bank was commended by President George W. Bush in 2002, the year he celebrated his hundredth birthday, for developing the unconventional warfare programs and techniques that were used in toppling the Taliban.

The consequence could be a Chernobyl-type accident, whereby the damaged plant would emit radioactivity into the atmosphere and contaminate thousands of square miles, including the nearby Los Angeles Basin.

As one of the world's leading experts on the sabotage of electric generating facilities, Bank spoke with great authority, but the AEC ultimately ignored these efforts and did not change the policy of the plant.