FOIAWEAR — JEDBURGH / Surprise, Kill, Vanish Tee

FOIAWEAR / ARCHIVE SERIES 015

Surprise, kill, and vanish.

That was the motto of the Jedburgh teams — the Office of Strategic Services' elite special-operations paratroopers of World War II. Recruited by a cryptic loudspeaker call for "volunteers for immediate overseas assignment… likelihood of a dangerous mission guaranteed," they were dropped behind enemy lines into Nazi-occupied France, Belgium and the Netherlands to coordinate airdrops of arms, lead the Resistance in hit-and-run attacks and sabotage, and pave the way for the advancing Allied armies.

A "Jed" team was two to four men: an American OSS officer, a British officer, a Free French officer or soldier, and sometimes a Belgian, Dutch or Canadian — always with a radio operator carrying the "Jed Set" link to London. They fought in uniform, trained in parachuting, skiing, explosives and espionage, and the first team jumped the night before D-Day. More than 90 teams parachuted into France in 1944, many jumping blind with no word back from the ground.

The most famous of them was William Colby, codename "Berkshire" — a 24-year-old who cheated an eye exam to become a paratrooper and led a Jed team into France in August 1944. He later led the first and only combined ski-parachute operation the US Army ever mounted, and in 1973 became Director of Central Intelligence.

This shirt is offered in both dark and light garment colours — the parachute canopy in copper on Black, Navy, Espresso, and in a matching dark-ink print on Chalky Mint, Light Green, White.

The QR code on the front opens the CIA's article on the Jedburghs, the source for everything above: https://www.cia.gov/stories/story/surprise-kill-vanish-the-legend-of-the-jedburghs/

Garment: Comfort Colors 1717 garment-dyed t-shirt. Heavyweight 6.1 oz/yd² (206.8 g/m²), 100% ring-spun US cotton, pre-shrunk, relaxed fit, double-needle stitched with no side seams and a sewn-in label. Sizes S–4XL. Printed on the front at 300 DPI; plain back. The main artwork prints at 10 × 10 in and the QR at 1.8 × 1.8 in.

Care: machine wash cold, inside out, with like colours. Tumble dry low. Do not iron directly on the printed area.

FOIAWEAR is an independent brand and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to the Central Intelligence Agency or the United States government.