Source: US FBI
Around the same time, the FBI established a relationship with and a presence on the Marine Corps Base at Quantico. FBI agents had been given the authority to carry firearms and needed a firing range to learn to use those weapons safely and effectively.
The FBI’s presence at Quantico grew with the National Academy’s development and a growing number of special agents. By the 1940s, the FBI had created a three-story brick building with classrooms, dining facilities, and dormitories to serve students in both the FBI Academy and National Academy.
But most of the training for both programs still occurred in Washington, D.C., and the facilities were limited in size and scope. “The firearms training unit was in Quantico,” said Jim O’Conner, who retired in 1989 as the deputy assistant director of the FBI Training Division, where he helped plan for the new training academy. “And there was a small academy building where you would go for a portrait of your new agents training class, but not very much else.”
With a 1965 request from President Lyndon Johnson, Congress approved funding for a larger training campus, and planning for the FBI’s modern 547-acre campus at Quantico began.