Contact Information
Base Contact Information
Warrenton Training Center: 530-827-4343
Geography and Area Information
The Warrenton Training Center (WTC) is located at 38.7335°N 77.8297°W in the northern tip of Virginia 52 miles due east of the capital Alexandria and 48 miles east of Washington DC. The installation is directly outside the city of Warrenton and lies within the fork of State Highways 17 and 211. The WTC has no precisely defined borders that are made public, but is within a craved out swath of heavily wooded area that lies inside a rough square formed by State Highways 17, 211, 522 and Interstate 66.
The Warrenton Training center is actually a collection of four separate facilities simply known as Station A, Station B, Station C and Station D. Stations A, B and C lie within Fauquier County and Station D resides in Culpeper County. Though spread out, the stations are all within 3 miles of various cities.
Station A is 1 mile southwest of Warrenton, B 2 miles northwest of Warrenton, C 1 mile southeast of Remington and D 3 miles northwest of Lignum.
History
The Warrenton Training Center was created in June of 1951 as a function of the Federal Relocation Arc. The facility was constructed of fortified underground bunkers designed to withstand nuclear attack and the ensuing fallout. The purpose was to provide a facility where the government could continue to function in the aftermath of a nuclear attack on the United States. The publicly presented reason for construction of the Warrenton Training Center at this time was as a communications training school for the Department of Defense.
In 1973 the facility command was transferred to the Department of the Army and was to be directly commanded by the Army Security Agency, the singles intelligence branch. During this time the Warrenton Training Center was designated as the U.S. Army Training Group, Warrenton Training Center and was subordinate to the National Security Agency (NSA). This system was kept in place until 1982 when the facility was rebranded to its original name and command was restored to the Department of Defense with the Department of the Army acting as the administrative executive agent at the behest of the National Communication System.
Acting through the National Communication System (until it’s dissolution in 2012, now under the Department of Homeland Security) the Warrenton Training Center was tasked with facilitating communication for the Federal Government in any situation. This includes anything ranging from natural disaster to full scale nuclear attack by a hostile entity.
Primary and Ancillary functions
The primary and publicly presented mission of the Warrenton Training Center is to provide the ability for government communications to function in any circumstance and serve as a relocation bunker if necessary. The facility has been used as a communication center by the CIA since the 1950’s and is still used as such in addition to several other communication related functions.
Station A is used as a residential, training and administrative facility for multiple agencies including the CIA and Department of State. Station B, the official headquarters of the Warrenton Training Center includes multiple buildings and facilities including underground bunkers. Facilities at Station B include equipment maintenance, communications training, electronics testing and a communications development laboratory. Station B is also home to the Brushwood Conference facility that was built in mid 1990’s. Station C has been designated as a CIA numbers station and is tasked with transmitting coded signals to US embassies and assets overseas. Station D is tasked with being a receiving point for high frequency traffic for the CIA Office of Communications. Additionally, Station D plays host to a wide array of satellite communication facilities and serves as a core relay station for the region, relaying secure traffic for Department of State’s Diplomatic Telecommunications Service
Public Access
The Warrenton Training Center is a classified site and in being such, access is limited only to those stationed or employed there.
