BloodBanker is seeking and supporting creative projects that need funding to get into production and be introduced into a larger market. With the help of Kickstarter.com, the world’s largest funding platform for creative projects, BloodBanker gets to help promising and potentially great projects from the world’s brilliant minds through funding and pledges. Check out other projects we’ve funded here.
One of the projects that BloodBanker has funded is “PO Box 1142”, a project by Alex Kanakaris dedicated to Major Arnold Kohn. Major Kohn, whom Kanakaris considers as the greatest teacher he has ever met, is the chief intelligence officer for PO Box 1142 during World War II. Kanakaris wants to write a book, make a movie treatment and create a website about PO Box 1142, and narrate to the world a part of its history that only a few has come to know.
What is PO Box 1142?
Based out of Fort Hunt, Virginia, PO Box 1142 was a secret American military intelligence facility that operated during WWII. PO Box 1142 was a codename and the men who worked on this team used intelligence and cunning instead of humiliation and torture when they interviewed Prisoners of War (POWs). Among the famous prisoners that were held captive at the facility were spymaster Reinhard Gehlen, rocket scientist Wernher von Braun, infrared detection inventor Heinz Schlicke and German U-Boat commander Werner Henke.
In short, PO Box 1142 was an interrogation center and they had interrogated nearly 4,000 of the most important German POWs, including scientists, submariners and soldiers. The work done at PO Box 1142 contributed to the Allied victory of World War II, impacted the Cold War and led to the advances in scientific technology and military intelligence.
PO Box 1142 was indeed a great help for America but since the mission was top secret, the patriotic veterans kept silent for sixty years. Finally, after a long time of living life in silence, the veterans were honored by Congress. In October 2007, the veterans reunited for the first time since the war ended at the Fort Hunt Park, where the facility originally stood.
And their story can now be told.
Why support PO Box 1142?
Alex Kanakaris from California believes that what transpired in PO Box 1142 is an event worth telling to the rest of the world. This is something that need not get buried in the history along with the untold stories of the world’s unsung heroes.
Kanakaris is asking the support of the Kickstarter community to help him finish what he has started. PO Box 1142 project consists of an eBook, paperback book, website and movie treatment, which he dedicates to his mentor, the late Major Arnold Kohn. Major Kohn was the one who encouraged Kanakaris in his writing skills and helped him publish a high school newspaper. Karanakis was a part of Kohn’s Individualized Study Program at Pacific Grove High School in California and the late chief intelligence officer helped Karanakis succeed in school.
The modern world can all learn from the strategies and experiences PO Box 1142 had endured during the war. They never resorted to violence and torture such as sleep deprivation, electrical shock or waterboarding just to obtain information from the POWs. Instead, they befriended each captive to earn their trust. They talked and walked with them, played card games, which led them to acquire the necessary information from the prisoners. These interrogations resulted to the discovery of Germany’s secret weapon programs and USA’s victory in the war. Truly, the current intelligence community can get valuable techniques and information from the veteran’s experiences.
PO Box 1142 is a living proof that success can be achieved without violence. Hopefully, when this project gets funded, we can learn from the stories of these veterans and use them to our advantage.
Update: PO Box 1142 has only 6 days left to go to reach their funding goal. Their goal is to reach $1000 but they still have accumulated pledges of $162. With your generosity and trust for the project, PO Box 1142 will reach more people and the world will come to know the team responsible for America’s victory during the historical second World War.