Welcome to The CIA and ‘The Farm’ its Legendary Training Program

Being accepted to work at the CIA is highly difficult. The interview process is long and secretive - and applicants and their references are often vetted without ever knowing it. Once accepted, very few go on to practice espionage. That distinction is reserved for those invited to the CIA’s top secret and legendary training program known as ‘The Farm’. Fewer still actually graduate the program and become Case Officers or as they are most commonly referred: Spies. HBH is excited to welcome back former CIA Case Officer Doug Laux.

Before deploying abroad, or even traveling to Camp Peary - which houses ‘The Farm’ somewhere deep in the forests of Virginia - Doug was required to make enormous personal sacrifices. He had to to lie to family and friends, leaving them all completely in the dark, as to what he was really doing with his life. 

This is all the very beginning of a CIA Case Officer’s career. Doug’s career at the agency was a significant one which took him to Afghanistan, Syria and other other hot zones around the world.

Make sure to check out the outstanding book ‘Left of Boom’ by Doug Laux and Ralph Pezzullo - and thanks for listening to Heroes Behind Headlines.