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When refugees from Burma land in Albany this year in a program partly sponsored by the Albany Diocese, Cornelius Gray wants to say thanks to the Karen people of Burma for having saved his life behind enemy lines. 

"The ones coming over here are probably the grandchildren of the ones we worked with," said Mr. Gray, who spied on the Japanese during World War II. "Without their help, our mission would not have succeeded and we would have been killed."

Mr. Gray, 84, recently recalled his adventures in Burma after hearing that about 60 refugees from Burma and Iraq would be assisted here by diocesan Catholic Charities and the Albany branch of the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants. 

The Albany Diocese is one of 100 U.S. dioceses participating in the resettlement program for the victims of foreign oppression. 

Mr. Gray told his story in his suburban colonial home on the outskirts of Troy, which is surrounded by evergreens. The domestic quiet contrasted with his adventures in the South Asian jungles.

Signing up
A lifelong Catholic who still belongs to his childhood parish of Sacred Heart, Mr. Gray grew up in North Albany. Famed novelist William Kennedy, also an Albany native, was a pal in the Irish neighborhood. 

In 1942, Mr. Gray graduated from Christian Brothers Academy in Albany and joined the Army at age 18 to fight in World War II. He spent two years in India. The Office of Strategic Service, the free-wheeling spy agency of the time, trained him in Sri Lanka as a weather observer. 

In 1945, he parachuted into the bush in south Burma with another American and two riflemen from Burma's Karen people. The area, part of the China-Burma-India Theater, had been occupied by the Japanese since 1942. 

"Our mission was to reconnoiter railroads and supply routes, the effects of Allied bombings and the POW camps," said Mr. Gray. The Karen people helped the Allies while the Burmese majority cooperated with the Japanese. 

"When we landed, Karen people came out to meet us and warned us of Japanese in the area, so they sent us further into the hills," he said. 

Local friends
The Karen people were hunter-gatherers who had homes of bamboo and thatch erected on stilts. Extended families lived in groups of eight to 10 huts. Mr. Gray said they were affable, cooperative and fearless in combat. 

"They shared our interest in survival from the Japanese and Burmese forces," he added. The Karen fed, hid and helped the reconnaissance mission. "We were carrying out military operations against the Japanese. Basically, we were shooting them." 

But there was room for mercy. At one point, the team realized that Buddhist monks were informing on them. 

"We had the option of leaving or doing away with them," Mr. Gray said in a matter-of-fact tone. "We chose to leave." 

Far from home, the 20-year-old also had to negotiate exotic religious boundaries. One night before they were to attack a Japanese contingent, Karen people brought in a Burmese holy man to provide divine protection from bullets and bayonets. 

Interfaith aid
"He blessed us and he danced over us and then he expectorated on us," Mr. Gray said. "I was concerned about going too far since I grew up a strict Catholic." But the blessing seemed to work, he added. 

Mr. Gray's contingent spent 77 days behind the lines, pursued by Japanese forces of up to 1,900. In a commendation letter, a superior specified that "under conditions that were adverse in the extreme, Sgt. Gray proved himself to be a brave, consistent, capable and energetic soldier." 

Mr. Gray's term in the jungle ended with the war: "We got a radio message that the war was over, that they had dropped the atom bomb." They went downriver by raft and shipped out with the British. 

The imminent arrival of Karen refugees, who still suffer repression under the current Burmese military regime, has reminded him of his gratitude toward their ancestors. 
"I have, if not a like, then a love for them," he said.[[In-content Ad]]

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