Quantico Turns 50
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is celebrating two 50th anniversaries this year – the opening of the FBI Training Academy at Quantico, and the first women special agents who passed the Academy. Since opening 50 years ago, 54,000 law enforcement officials have received training from the FBI’s National Academy.
While now recognized as a world class training facility for law enforcement, Quantico as a campus evolved over a 40 year period. The FBI’s story at Quantico begins with the ‘Kansas City Massacre’ in June 1933, when three police officers and a Bureau agent were killed by “Pretty Boy” Floyd and other criminals while escorting a prisoner. Following the attack, FBI agents were given the authority to make arrests and carry weapons for the first time.
In 1934, the Marine Corps allowed the FBI to begin using available firing ranges at its base in Quantico, Virginia, located outside the nation’s capital. In 1935, the Bureau launched a formal training program dubbed the “Police Training School,” the early predecessor of today’s National Academy. By 1940, the Marines allowed the Bureau to construct facilities to include classrooms and law enforcement firing ranges, marking the official start of the FBI Academy.
Over the next two decades, the FBI campus at Quantico grew, but by the 1960s it was clear the FBI needed a new, modernized facility to meet its needs. Following a request to Congress from President Lyndon Johnson, in 1965 Congress approved a new complex for the Bureau at Quantico, with construction beginning in 1969 and the facility opening in 1972.
“Since its creation, the FBI Academy has been giving our employees and partners the tools, skills, and knowledge they need to take on…every responsibility of their jobs, from the routine to the extraordinarily difficult,” said FBI Director Christopher Wray at an anniversary celebration this year. “And thanks to what happens here at the Academy, our agents go out into the field prepared, our analysts expertly provide the critical information needed to support investigations, and our law enforcement partners benefit from the resources and expertise the FBI provides as the premier law enforcement agency in the world.”
With the new academy also came new opportunities. The first two women special agents, Joanne Pierce Misko and Susan Roley Malone, began their training in July 1972. Malone described being an FBI agent as her “Dream job” but felt a need to be “five times as good” as then men in order to succeed. Their success paved the way for more women to enter the ranks of federal law enforcement.
Today, women make up 22 percent of FBI special agents, and of the 56 FBI field offices, seven are run by women. Earlier this year, Malone and Misko returned to the academy to mark the 50 year anniversary and describe their experiences as women in the FBI. The celebration also honored the first woman to serve as an FBI training instructor, Christine Jung; the first woman SWAT team operator and SWAT team leader, Kathleen Adams; and the first woman special agent of Asian ancestry, Jo Ann Sakato.