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CAPE CORAL: The U.S. government has released thousands of names affiliated with the clandestine "Office of Special Services" or O.S.S., the precursor to the modern Central Intelligence Agency. Its operations were held during World War II and over the years, defined the modern "spy."

ABC7 spoke to a Cape Coral woman about her husband who was around at the very beginning.

The O.S.S was a group shrouded in secrecy with one sole purpose.

"I guess he was spying. I don't know," said Dorothy Smith about her husband, Richard Smith.

She explained her husband was part of the original O.S.S - the CIA before there was a CIA.

He started as a SCUBA trainer. But Dorothy hinted at a darker side of his operations during World War II.

"Other than this plastic explosive they carried, they wore a knife on their leg and a piano wire," she said.

The government disbanded the O.S.S. when World War II ended, but the newly formed CIA recruited many of its agents.

"You have to get used to the sense of someone always looking over your shoulder," said Tom Poole who has since retired from the CIA.

He joined the CIA when older, former O.S.S. members were still around.

"They were put into places of their best and highest use which if they had foreign language and cultural experience, they were some player in the O.S.S.," said Poole.

From the whirling dervishes of Turkey to the desolate borders of Iran and operations in southeast Asia, Poole calls the lifestyle rough, to say the least.

But like those before him, he's proud to have served.

And though much has changed over the years, some things remain the same.

"I can't tell you anything more than that," Poole told ABC7.

The U.S. government formed the intelligence group on June 13th, 1942 and President Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed William Donovan to head the O.S.S.

The O.S.S. conducted special operations like training and supplying resistance movements and recruiting spies.

One of the greatest accomplishments of the O.S.S. was operatives penetrating Germany during World War II.