During WWII, Alexander Martin Georgiades joined the American army and was recruited into the American intelligence service, namely the Office of Strategic Services (OSS). After several months of military training, Georgiades operated as a Secret Intelligence Branch (SI) officer, initially in Egypt and Western Turkey, where he was primarily responsible for the uncovering of a large German spy ring operating against Allied interests near the Turkish border and instrumental in the capture of certain Bulgarian agents in possession of valuable documents. He then operated in the German occupied Evros region of Greece, gathering intelligence on Axis strength and troop movements, and paving the way for Allied sabotage against the Axis Powers.

Georgiades never hesitated to take on extraordinary missions, occasionally even risking his own life in duty towards “both homelands,” Greece and America. He even disguised himself as a German officer in order to enter occupied Greece from Adrianople and from there into Bulgaria on a mission to collect valuable intelligence for the Allies and transport valuable supplies for the needs of the Resistance at the Evros area.

Guerrillas of the Greek People’s Liberation Army (ELAS) persistently eyed him with suspicion, however, without Georgiades, the Allies would not have managed to sever the Axis supply lines of raw materials crossing the Evros region by train from Turkey to Berlin and, hence, the war would have gone on.

Georgiades was discharged from the Army with the rank of Captain and was awarded the Bronze Star, the Legion of Merit and the Purple Heart of the American Army for his courageous service and meritorious conduct.

Upon his return to America he lived and worked in Pittsburgh and continued aiding the people of Greece through the Greek War Relief and other relief organizations.

Born in Othos, on the isle of Karpathos, Alexander Martin Georgiades emigrated to America as a teenager, where he eventually studied electrical engineering at Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Technical Institute (now Carnegie-Mellon University). He became an officially naturalized American citizen in 1940. Georgiades was a founding member of the Karpathian Educational and Progressive Association of America (KEPA), and member of AHEPA since its foundation.