CIA PARAMILITARY TRAINING 77The fact is they did their best to prepare us to survive the brutal, life-
threatening reality that would await many of us overseas. In my case, that
would be Sarajevo. They also subconsciously planted the seed of hope in
us. If and when we were captured by the enemy, and if we were unable
to escape, we’d never lose hope that one day we might be rescued. Again.
We owed our captors and guards a huge debt of gratitude. But at that
moment, I sure as hell did not feel that way.Temporary SERE discomfort notwithstanding, the lengthy CIA training
process was one of the greatest experiences of my life. In the early 1980s,
new recruits in the CIA’s clandestine service embarked on an intensive ori-
entation and training process centered in the DC area and elsewhere on
the East Coast. Our training included months-long paramilitary, as well
as tradecraft and operational courses, in addition to interim assignments
on “Country Desks” at CIA headquarters. A Country Desk refers to an
office that manages clandestine operations in a particular country. Once
we successfully completed basic training and were certified as case offi-
cers, we moved on to any foreign language or specialized surveillance or
other training necessary to prepare us for our first overseas postings. Most
new CIA officers spend at least two years in basic and specialized training
before heading overseas on their first undercover assignment. Contrast this
with State Department foreign service officers, who often find themselves
overseas within a few months of coming on board.
CIA tradecraft training (“spy school”) at the Farm has been covered
extensively in other books. I will not get into the details of tradecraft
training, which only serve to reveal CIA methods—methods that are essen-
tial to the CIA’s success and America’s national security. Suffice it to say
that all CIA training and tradecraft can be boiled down to a very simple,
life-saving bottom line: don’t get caught. These three words were never far
from my consciousness and would serve me well throughout my CIA
career and beyond.
The most highly anticipated training for those of us with no prior
military experience was the lengthy Special Operations Training Course
(SOTC—pronounced “sot-see”), the CIA’s paramilitary course for pro-