(Military intelligence asset and mobster Lucky Luciano).

I am sorry to plow old ground again, but this is a flip account of the involvement of Naval Intelligence with a unique troika of New York law enforcement and The Mob. Forgive me. I just binge-watched the Sopranos and am a little nostalgic.

I was tipped off to this unusual arrangement by retired RADM Tom Brooks, who is plugged into the New York Naval Reserve community, whose ranks are dwindling from the wild days of the Second War. An echo remains from my pal Pete, who was a liaison officer to the Tall Ships Bicentennial port call in 1976, and when a fellow announced at lunch in an Italian social club that ‘friends’ would keep the peace on the waterfront during the period huge crowds were expected to turn out to see the magnificent parade of ships.

There were no problems.

Later, I attended an Arlington Cemetery funeral of one of our heroes, CAPT Tony Marlow, who was one of the interesting hybrid law enforcement-Naval Intelligence officers produced by the mobilization. I was interested to see the official party of solemn people in long blue coats, and a separate group of gentlemen in civilian clothes who did not mingle. I heard one of the ringtones on a mobile phone from a distance. It was “Bay of Naples.”

Anyway, researching Tony’s career led to one thing and another and an extraordinary tale- which led to more long-ago intrigue on the New York waterfront, including the fire onboard the famed liner SS Normandie. Naval Intelligence and police were concerned about Nazi infiltration at the piers, and one thing led to another…

There is enough strange history here to issue another book or two.

On this day in 1942 (according to published reports), the U.S. Navy turned to rather unusual sources for military information. Actually, if you are any kind of student of U.S. history, and particularly of military and covert operations, the Navy’s source may not have been all that unusual.

At this time, World War II had recently begun (for the U.S. anyway) and, while most eyes were on the Pacific, the Navy was already thinking about the invasion of Europe. And, since the only place the Allies were holding their own was North Africa, they figured that invasion would have to be across the Mediterranean. And, that meant Sicily would be the key.

Now, if this was 1942, and you were the U.S. Navy and, you went in the chart room, you’d have a problem. Because if you looked in the drawer marked Sicily, you might find its latitude and longitude but little else. There would be few files on the depth of harbors and almost no data on shore defenses.

Not a very good data base on which to plan an invasion.

So……to get data on Sicily, you began to think what a less politically correct government might assume in time of war. Having read the tabloids, the Navy assumed a guy named Lucky Luciano might know something about Sicily. And, since he was early in on a 40 to 50 year sentence, he would have time to listen.

Mr. Luciano (according to the same published reports, your honor) did not recall much direct detail of Sicily but (according to the same reports) thought he might know a guy or two who did. And boy, did he!

Over the next 10 months the Mafia (er… an unknown group of partisans) provided enough data on Sicily’s defenses that when the allies invaded (7/10/43), they captured the whole island in 37 days. And they killed 167,000 of the enemy while losing under 24,000 – – remarkable in any invasion at that time.

The story, of course is, we are sure, just a coincidence of history. And, the fact that Mr. Luciano’s sentence was changed three years later (he was released from jail in 1946 and deported to – where else – Sicily – – despite about 35 years left on his term). The whole thing is, of course, wild conjecture (except for the facts). We also hope to disprove the Mafia/Castro/ Assassination linkage in a future episode. Imagine, the U.S. Government cavorting with gangsters. How very, very unlikely!

To mark the day find some guy named “Don” and see if he has any contacts in Syria.

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