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Page 18 October 2018 The Catoctin Banner Newspaper www.TheCatoctinBanner.com Published by www.EPlusPromotes.com
Catoctin Mountain Park’s Role in World War II Espionage
Jack Walker
Brimming with life, nature, Photos from an OSS Ford Training Film on in some parts of the CRDA.
and scenery, Catoctin Mountain Trainees were stripped of their
Park embodies the vast beauty identities, given fake names and
Frederick County has to offer. new clothes. They then learned
Take a look beyond this initial basic military survival tactics,
allure, however, and you will like how to avoid detection as
discover the park’s hidden past— a spy or militant. Kasey Clay,
one with a sizable impact on a veteran who served sixteen
American history. years with the United States Air
In 1942, soon after American Force and Army and a historian
entry into World War II, at Catoctin Mountain Park,
the Catoctin Recreational describes the park’s further
Demonstration Area, now specifics. She says that OSS spies
Catoctin Mountain Park, was learned “condensed” skillsets.
selected as a training site for a They were taught “how to blow
new United States intelligence The Trainazium up buildings, how to break and
agency. This was the Office of enter into houses, how to crack
Strategic Services, or the OSS, safes and [even how to] forge
a precursor to the CIA that documents.” All were trained by
organized wartime planning and the best in their fields—many of
espionage. The park was selected which came from prisons.
because of three key factors: its At a facility known as
closeness to the capital, its access the “Trainazium,” personnel
to railways, and its seclusion practiced their response to
from the public. Originally prisoner of war conditions.
located at Camp Greentop, The course was intense, leading
the OSS quickly moved in its to frequent injuries, including
personnel and equipment, the broken jaw of future CIA
separating their territory into Director Wiliam Casey. This
five new areas for training and was built without permission
trainee life. of the park, using many park
Even prior to the United trees and leaving holes in their
States’ official entry into the war, places, to the dismay of park
Catoctin had long maintained superintendent Mike Williams.
a significant military presence. An instructor teaching a shoot-from-the-hip After initial training was
During the summer of 1941, technique, “Instinctive shooting” they called it. complete, trainees had to enter
the Lend-Lease Act called for the ‘House of Horrors,’ a
American support of Allied potential in the park’s land and final testing area where their skills
powers financially and politically. converted the area now known as were assessed by their response to
As such, British soldiers came to Camp David into a presidential simulated war situations. Once they
Catoctin seeking shelter and respite retreat. In turn, the OSS stopped passed, they disappeared from the
while their ships were docked in using some of its designated training facilities entirely, with no word given
Baltimore. They stayed at the camps areas in the CRDA in favor of those to other trainees regarding their
of High Catoctin and Greentop, as in Prince William Forest of Northern departure. If they failed, they were
well as the Bessie Darling House. Virginia, where presidential security transferred to different locations to
Later in 1942, President Franklin would not be an issue.
Delano Roosevelt recognized the Nevertheless, training still went … Story continued on page 19
