2. Canaris wanted agents who had lived in the United States
Twelve men were recruited to form the saboteur teams. Four quickly dropped out. The remaining eight had lived in the United States before the war. Among them were two who were American citizens, Herbert Haupt and Ernst Burger. The others were George Dasch, Richard Quirin, Hermann Neubauer, Heinrich Heinck, Werner Thiel, and Edward Kerling. The men had diverse backgrounds. For example, Burger had lived many years in the United States and was a veteran of the National Guard, before returning to Germany during the Depression. There he worked for Ernst Roehm. Quirin had lived in the United States for 12 years, was a member of the German American Bund, and returned to Germany in 1939. He was the first man recruited for Pastorius.
George Dasch, a veteran of the German Army in World War 1, served in the US Army twice, in 1927 for one year with the Army Air Forces, and in 1936-38 with the 1st Infantry division. He married an American citizen and had a son by the marriage, both of whom he abandoned in 1938 when he returned to Germany. It was his second marriage. He had ignored the inconvenience of obtaining a divorce from his first wife, and aware that he was committing bigamy, he married his second using an alias, George Aldasch. The eight men recruited for Pastorius were all espionage novices, and intensive training was necessary.