Don Arave, Hooper, Utah: an interview by Joel C. Calderon, May 14, 2002: Saving the Legacy tape no. 378

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DON ARAVE 14 20 2 reservation in York County near Williamsburg, Virginia. It wa a eabees trainin ba , among other things, including a POW camp, during World War II. Officially it i now referred to as the Armed Forces Experimental Training Activity (AFETA) under the auspices of the Department of Defense, but it is widely believed to be the location of a covert CIA and Special Operations Group (SOG) training facility known as ~~The Farm".] He was an old Navy man and everything in there was his old farm, pretty much. It was a big camp right out of Williamsburg. That was the closest town. That's an old historic town. They still had the old poles with the ... they looked like lamps with a ... JOE: Candle? DON: You didn't put candles in them. They just had them lit up like that. JOE: This was in Virginia? DON: Camp Peary, Virginia, yes. JOE: You were by Williamsburg, the old colonial town they set up? DON: Yes, the old colonial town. That's where we were. That was the nearest town. But we could thumb our way to Norfolk or Richmond once we got there. I'm getting off the subject. Anyway two or three other guys from Hooper joined up when I did. They got called and went to Norfolk, Virginia. I went to Williamsburg. Like I say, it took me four days on the train to get there, about. I stopped in Ohio and Chicago, just changing trains and one thing or another. I got put in a Seabee battalion there. It was the 84th Seabee Battalion. We got all through with our six-week's training there. It was really cold, in Virginia, at that time of year. They'd get one of the cold storms and in that damp climate; I was colder there than I'd ever been at home. JOE: What time of year was it, again? 4