The San Diego Union-Tribune
...Hostler arrived in France on the afternoon of June 6 armed with a carbine, pistol and some special equipment: a spy camera, a lock-picking set and, to curry good will and information, four pairs of stockings, lipstick and cigarettes, he wrote in his memoir, "Soldier to Ambassador."
The only visible mark of his duty in France is the faded scar on his forehead, left from a meat ax blow delivered by a French Nazi sympathizer on D-Day. He received a Purple Heart for the wound five months ago – delayed six decades until records of the mission were declassified.
As an OSS agent, Hostler was often ahead of the advancing American troops. He entered Paris hours before Allied forces, securing Marie Curie's former atomic lab at the Sorbonne and the Gestapo headquarters. Later in the war, he served with the OSS in Romania...
The Palm Springs Desert Sun
...Charles Hostler landed in Normandy on D-Day in 1944 with a special assignment: Confront an enemy agent and force him to send false information to the Nazis.
"My adrenaline was running high and I wanted to do a good job," Hostler said about his first assignment from the Office of Strategic Services, the predecessor to the CIA.
"I politely knocked on the wholesale grocer’s door. A few seconds later, the door opened and a middle-aged man appeared. He took one look at my uniform. He reached back and grabbed a meat ax and struck me hard on the head."
Luckily for Hostler, the grocer used the blunt side of the ax. Hostler’s driver pushed the man inside his house where, Hostler said, "he eventually cooperated..."
The O.S.S. Society Newsletter ...After the war he became U.S. military attache in Lebanon, Jordan, and Cyprus. On retirement he worked in private industry in the Middle East. His military background, public service, and linguistic capabilities led to his appointment as U.S. Ambassador to Bahrain ('89-'93).
Ambassador Hostler's memoirs, Soldier to Ambassador, were published in February by the San Diego State University Press. The book reviews a life rich in military and diplomatic service, travel, knowledge of cultures, and relationships that span the gamut from soldiers in many wars to kings, religious dignitaries, presidents, prime ministers, and scholars...