SPOKANE A secret military facility outside Spokane tracks the movements of government employees and contractors who are missing in foreign countries, a newspaper reported Wednesday.
While most residents of the region have heard of the Survival School at nearby Fairchild Air Force Base, few know about the Joint Personnel Recovery Agency, which oversees the school but also conducts more clandestine work.
Dozens work at the White Bluff site, where training on how to behave if captured, and on Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape tactics are taught to various government employees headed overseas, The Spokesman-Review reported.
Although the U.S. military confirms the existence of the JPRA facility in Spokane, details about its mission are classified.
However, public documents show the facility also is involved in tracking and helping rescue U.S. military and civilian hostages missing anywhere in the world.
“Due to the nature of what occurs on the facility, we can’t answer your questions,” said Lt. Col. Phil Smith, a public affairs officer for the U.S. Joint Forces Command, an organization comprised of all branches of the U.S. military.
The federal government currently is negotiating the purchase of additional land from the state of Washington to nearly double the size of the 44-acre White Bluff site, according to documents obtained by the newspaper.
There are at least 21 U.S. military and civilian contractor-employees being tracked by JPRA, including three DEA contract employees being held by drug warlords in Colombia and a military contractor being held in Iraq.
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