Series: OSS Training in the National Parks and Service Abroad in World War II

Before there was the CIA, there was the OSS. The places where they trained for their dangerous mission are now national parks.

• Article 1: "Wild Bill" Donovan and the Origins of the OSS

  When World War II broke out in Europe in 1939, U.S. intelligence operations were splintered among nearly a dozen federal agencies. Read more

• Article 2: A Wartime Organization for Unconventional Warfare

  With the onset of World War II, the OSS's secret operations—espionage, counter-intelligence, disinformation, and guerrilla leadership—expanded. Read more

• Article 3: Catoctin and Prince William Parks Join the War Effort

  The decision to establish its first U.S. training camps at Catoctin Mountain Park, Maryland, and Prince William Forest Park, Virginia, had been based on their’ rural, isolated location yet comparative proximity to the nation’s capital. Read more

• Catoctin Mountain Park

  Article 4: Converting Catoctin Mountain Park into Military Camps

  OSS men began to arrive on 1 April 1942, and started to convert their part of the park into a basic paramilitary training school. Read more

• Prince William Forest Park

  Article 5: Transforming Prince William Forest Park into Military Camps

  In 1942, the hilly, forested lands of Prince William Forest Park near Quantico, Virginia, became the site of training camps for the OSS Special Operations and the Communications Branches. Read more

• Article 6: Instructing for Dangerous Missions

  Creating the training process was a big challenge. To prepare spies, saboteurs, guerrilla leaders, radio operators, psychological warfare specialists and commando teams for their clandestine missions, the Office of Strategic Services had to obtain instructors, prepare a curriculum, develop courses, and devise practical exercises. Read more

• Article 7: Daily Life in Camp Park and Town

  During the recruiting process, the Office of Strategic Services was looking for a combination of intelligence, imagination, courage and, if necessary, ruthlessness. Most of the young recruits, that volunteered for possible hazardous duty, craved the excitement and challenge of a special overseas assignment. Read more

• Article 8: OSS in Action The Mediterranean and European Theaters

  In war it is the results that count, and the saboteurs and guerrilla leaders in Special Operations and the Operational Groups, the spies in Secret Intelligence, and the radio operators in Communications did produce some impressive results. Read more

• Article 9: OSS in Action The Pacific and the Far East

  Although the most publicized achievements of the OSS occurred in Europe and North Africa, Donovan’s organization also contributed to the war against Japan in the Far East. Read more

• Article 10: Postwar Period: End of the OSS and Return to the Park Service

  The OSS may have won its battles in the field, but it lost its final campaign—in Washington. It was better prepared to fight armed enemies overseas than bureaucratic enemies in the nation’s capital. Read more

• Article 11: Summary and Conclusion

  The OSS training camps closed in 1945. The valuable contributions to the Allied victory made by those facilities and by Donovan’s organization itself are an important part of the history of World War II. Read more