Congressional: Birthplace of Special Forces and the CIA

What a fascinating read Sunday about the secret history of Congressional Country Club and the formation of the Office of Strategic Services.

From Bill Pennington in The New York Times:

During World War II, the club’s more than 400 acres about 12 miles outside Washington had been leased to the United States government to serve as the training ground for America’s first intelligence agency, the forerunner to the C.I.A. and American Special Forces.

“We came out of the tent and thought, ‘Hey, country club living,’ ” Civitella said. “But we were wrong; it was no country club life.”

In fact, another O.S.S. veteran, Alex MacDonald, later called the training at Congressional “malice in wonderland.”

The practice range became a rifle range, and bunkers were used for grenade practice. The dense wooded areas were perfect for nighttime commando exercises, and an obstacle course, set with booby traps, stretched across the first and second holes. Hand-to-hand combat was taught next to a mock fuselage from which paratroopers learned to jump. Men crawled on their bellies across fairways sprayed with live machine gun fire, and the greens made excellent targets for mortar practice. So did the caddie shack and every rain shelter on the course.

“We literally just blew the place up,” said Al Johnson, who, like most of the living O.S.S. veterans — there are about 200 — is in his late 80s.

When the world’s best golfers play Congressional this week in Bethesda, Md., little evidence of the mayhem that preceded them by more than 65 years will remain. After the war, the federal government restored the course to its original splendor. Golf shots replaced gunshots.

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