Julia Child Worked on an Underwater Explosives Program Before Becoming a Chef
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Before Julia Child started churning out delicious French cuisine, she had a government job. She was too tall at six-feet, two inches to enlist in the Women’s Army Corp, so she applied for a job at the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), a precursor to the CIA. She was asked to help in developing a repellent to prevent sharks and other creatures from setting off underwater explosives targeting German U-Boats. She also had assignments in China and Ceylon (present-day Sri Lanka). Julia fell in love with colleague Paul Cushing Child, and they wed in 1946. She left the agency, and Paul started working at the U.S. Information Agency in France. Julia began to cook to pass the time.