
He got as far as Las Cruces, New Mexico, before he was arrested for having no identification and refusing to give his name to a local police officer. Knowing that it was unlikely that he would be admitted in Texas because of his young age, Waugh devised a plan to hitchhike to Los Angeles, where he believed a person had to only be 16 to enlist.


In 1945, upon meeting two local Marines who returned from the fighting in World War II, the then 15-year-old Waugh was inspired to enlist in the Marine Corps. Waugh was born in Bastrop, Texas, on December 1, 1929. Army's Green Berets and the CIA's Special Activities Division.

William Dawson Waugh (Decem– April 4, 2023) was a United States Army Special Forces soldier and Central Intelligence Agency paramilitary operations officer who served more than 50 years between the U.S.
