National Archives and Records Administration.

OSS recruits train in Prince William Forest Park to set up a radio (1942-45)

From 1942 - 1945, spies, saboteurs, guerrilla leaders, and the communications operators who would go with them behind enemy lines trained in Prince William Forest Park. The U.S. Office of Strategic Services (OSS) fought a largely invisible and covert war against the Axis powers. As America’s first national centralized intelligence agency the OSS is credited with being the predecessor of the Central Intelligence Agency. With its Special Operations and Operational Group commandos, the OSS is also widely considered one of the forerunners of today's Special Forces.

Prince William Forest Park (then called Chopawamsic National Capital Park), located in a rural, rolling, heavily wooded area northwest of Triangle (and Quantico), Virginia, included OSS Training Areas A and C.

When the Second World War ended in September 1945, the OSS was dissolved. The OSS facilities at Prince William Forest Park had played a significant role in the OSS mission in World War II.

To learn more about about OSS activities in Prince William Forest Park, read "OSS Training Activities in Catoctin Mountain Park and Prince William Forest Park," a new report released by Rutgers University Professor of History, Dr. John Chambers.