The following morning, the Boston Globe published an explosive story with an eye-catching headline: “Ex-Nazi High Post with United States Air Force, says Medical Man Here.” News reached Texas quickly. Dr. Schreiber was called into the Office of Special Investigations (OSI) at Randolph Air Force Base to provide details of the phone call with Mr. Brown the previous evening. Schreiber confirmed that “during World War II he had held a position in the Wermacht [sic] similar to the Surgeon General of the U.S. Army.” But his story, his struggle, he told the investigating officer, was so much more than that. Schreiber relayed his capture in Berlin, his life as a prisoner of war in Soviet Russia, and how he’d “served as a prosecution witness during the Nuremberg War Crimes Trials.” Schreiber explained that owing to “feigned compliance” with the Russians he’d been “awarded a high position with the East German Politzei [sic].” Instead of taking that job he’d escaped. Schreiber lied to the Office of Special Investigations and said that he had met Dr. Leo Alexander at Nuremberg. That he had been “given a clean bill of health by [Doctor] Alexander” himself.
Schreiber told the air force investigator he was certain that the Russians were behind all of this. He had recently written a manuscript called “Behind the Iron Curtain,” Schreiber said, and while he hadn’t found a publisher yet, he believed that the Russians had gotten hold of a copy of it. “He was of the opinion that [Soviet Intelligence] is perhaps attempting to slander him by implying that he was engaged in atrocious experiments on human subjects,” the investigating officer wrote in his report. Schreiber’s full statement was forwarded to air force headquarters. The security officers at Randolph Air Force Base did not have the kind of clearance that allowed them access to Dr. Schreiber’s JIOA file or his OMGUS security report. They had no idea who Schreiber really was. They most certainly had not been made aware that he was a Nazi ideologue and the former surgeon general of the Third Reich. All anyone at the School of Aviation Medicine would have known was that he was a German scientist who was part of Operation Paperclip. The facility had already employed thirty-four German scientists.
On December 14, the FBI got involved in the case. Dr. Leopold Alexander, Schreiber’s accuser in Boston, was an internationally renowned authority on medical crimes. His allegations had to be taken seriously. But the air force was unwilling to give up Dr. Schreiber right away. To garner support for him, a memo classified Secret was circulated among those involved, heralding the “Professional and Personal Qualifications of Dr. Walter Schreiber.” The memo stated, “He possesses an analytical mind, critical judgment, objectivity, and a wealth of well detailed, exact information.” Schreiber possessed “know how on preventative health measures, military and civilian, under conditions of total war.” He had “detailed information of medical problems in connection with desert and ‘Arctic’ warfare,” and had “contributed to Zeiss Atlas of Epidemology” [sic]. He’d been “a ‘key’ prisoner of war in Russia for three and a half years [and] he is in a position to provide authoritative information and serve as a consultant on vitally important medical matters in Russia.”