CIA officers learn 007-spy skills at "The Farm"

"The Farm" is the CIA's
mysterious training facility 

Camp Peary is known as "The Farm", an ultra-secret 9,000-acre training facility hidden in dense woods that is run by the Central Intelligence Agency for the purpose of training its clandestine officers. It is a covert training facility, indeed, positioned in a backwoods region not far from Williamsburg, Virginia.

     All new Agency recruits are sent there to run surveillance tests, and seasoned CIA spymasters return often to sharpen their counterintelligence skills. The training programs are as rigorous as those experienced by U.S. Army soldiers, including airborne training. In a way, it could be called a “James Bond” school since there are lots of 007-style action skills to master, like speed boat handling, shooting Glocks and M4s, parachuting, how to recruit foreign assets (spies), and hi-speed and defensive driving where trainees learn how to flip cars and respond within seconds if swarmed by armed militia fighters. Move over, James Bond!

     Top candidates spend six months at the ultra-secret military base in Virginia where they master 007-style skills like shooting Glocks and M4s, parachuting, speed boating and recruiting assets (spies). The coursework is particularly detailed when it comes to bugging telephones, using hideaway places to pass and receive information, using weapons, writing intelligence reports (the CIA is, after all, still a bureaucracy), reading maps and trailing suspects undetected.

     An interesting sidenote: At an Association of Former Intelligence Officer’s (AFIO) luncheon, I met a CIA case officer who trained with Valerie Plame at “The Farm.” Plame later became the CIA operative who was outed as a spy by top officials in George W. Bush's administration in the early months of the Iraq War in 2003 (The Hollywood movie Fair Game portrayed her outing). He and the other recruits were in their mid-thirties, but Valerie Plame was fresh out of college and was the youngest amongst them. He revealed to me that she was the top scorer in shooting matches involving the Russian AK-47 assault rifle.

     CIA trainees at “The Farm” are taught how to shoot handguns, but they rarely carry a firearm when conducting foreign covert missions. Most countries outlaw carrying concealed weapons so if they get caught lugging one around, their cover is blown. In case they end up in a physical altercation, they learn extensive hand-to-hand martial arts combat skills, including krav maga, jeet kune do and Brazilian jiu jitsu. They also learn how to convert common objects found in homes and offices into improvised weapons.

     In my Corey Pearson spy thriller novels, I often mentioned “The Farm,” for it adds a shadowy mood to the plot. Here’s a snippet from the MISSION OF VENGEANCE spy thriller, where Corey Pearson hikes through the dense forest at “The Farm”:   

Snippet: The path narrowed as Corey hiked through a dense pine forest at “The Farm.” Through an opening he saw a stream flowing, and beyond it a barbwire fence that separated the clandestine grounds from the public. It looked like a peaceful nature preserve to the townspeople but sporadic bursts from machine guns and artillery fire, and black suburban SUVs with tinted windows entering the front gate aroused their curiosity.

     The dense forest gave way to what appeared from the air to be a normal college campus with manicured grass lawns. Memories. Nothing had changed in appearance: the dorm he slept and studied in; the dining hall; the gymnasium where he was taught hand-to-hand combat by skilled martial arts instructors of krav maga and jiu jitsu; a mock prison where he was locked up, deprived of food and water and underwent unpleasant interrogations and learned to interrogate others; the firing range where he became proficient in hitting bullseye’s with the HK416 assault rifle, Glock 19, and Russian AK-47, and in throwing the CQD razon-blade knife with pinpoint accuracy at thirty feet… all looked the same. A private airstrip lay beyond the campus. The HST Airlines Learjet that flew the Russian KGB defector in from Colorado was still parked by the runway.

     He strolled through the campus and entered a pastoral cottage next to a gurgling stream that lay hidden under a canopy of oaks.

     The defector sat in a padded oak chair, sipping a specially made Moscow Mule. He toasted Corey as he entered. “I’m beginning to like my new country already.”

     CIA operatives Sweeney and Murray played Double Solitaire at a table in the corner under a 12-point buck deer head mounted on the wall. Morrison sat beside the KGB defector in a Goodwill-styled oaken chair. A big screen TV was mounted on the wall, tuned in to CNN.

     General Morrison looked up at Corey. “President Rhinehart’s speaking from the Oval Office in ten minutes. Much of his address to the nation will revolve around the intelligence you collected and from your attack plan on our KGB friend’s estate in the Dominican Republic.”

End of Snippet

     Lastly, you will enjoy this video by Serena Yang called THE RECRUIT: Spy School- Inside the CIA Training Program. It expertly blends scenes from the Hollywood movie The Recruit, starring Al Pacino, with testimonies from real-life CIA case officers who have “been there, done that” at “The Farm.” Enjoy!

 

Robert Morton is a member of the Association of Former Intelligence Officers (AFIO), enjoys writing about the U.S. Intelligence Community, and relishes traveling to the Florida Keys and Key West, the Bahamas and Caribbean. He combines both passions in his Corey Pearson- CIA Spymaster series. Check out his latest spy thriller: MISSION OF VENGEANCE.