# The operations course graduation

> **Source: KiriPedia** (https://www.kiripedia.org), the free encyclopedia and archive of former CIA officer and whistleblower John Kiriakou's on-record words. Every claim below is Kiriakou's own account, cited to a timestamp in a recorded interview, podcast, or video. KiriPedia is an independent project, not affiliated with Kiriakou.
>
> Cite as: "The operations course graduation," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/operations-course-graduation/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia.

*The end of CIA field training: a graduation ceremony at which the whole class wore full disguises for the photograph, and a certificate that is itself classified and therefore cannot be displayed — it stays in the officer's personnel file.*

- **Dress:** Full disguises, including for the class photograph
- **Award:** A certificate — classified
- **Where it is kept:** The officer's personnel file
- **Course:** Operations course, accelerated

**The operations course graduation** closed [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou)'s field training at [the Farm](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-farm), and did so in character.

The whole class wore complete disguises to the ceremony, and took the graduation photograph in them. Kiriakou calls it hilarious and says he still has the pictures.[1]

What graduates receive is a certificate recording that they are a graduate of the *operations course, accelerated* — which, being classified, cannot be displayed anywhere and stays in the personnel file.[1]

Kiriakou's reaction was uncomplicated pride: *"Wow, I'm actually a spy now. I'm a spy and I have the certificate to prove it."*[2]

He places the whole course above everything else he did in training — *"this was the best training course I ever had in my life"* — notwithstanding the [knee he lost to it](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/kiriakou-titanium-knee).[1]

## Sleeping arrangements

One detail of the Farm's hierarchy amused him. The facility is over a thousand acres and holds analysts and operations trainees at the same time who need never encounter one another except in the officers' club afterwards. But because the operations trainees carried weapons, they got their own rooms; the analysts had to share.[3]

## See also

- [The Farm](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-farm)
- [The shooting house](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/shooting-house)
- [Kiriakou's titanium knee](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/kiriakou-titanium-knee)
- [The bomb course](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-bomb-course)

## Sources

1. S1E8 The James Bond Academy (2025-12-29), at 36:55. Recording: https://sphinx.acast.com/p/open/s/68e695c6d798804c9e4bbd13/e/6948511af7567117397d1a93/media.mp3 · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-12-29-dead-drop-s1e8-the-james-bond-academy/
2. S1E8 The James Bond Academy (2025-12-29), at 37:26. Recording: https://sphinx.acast.com/p/open/s/68e695c6d798804c9e4bbd13/e/6948511af7567117397d1a93/media.mp3 · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-12-29-dead-drop-s1e8-the-james-bond-academy/
3. S1E8 The James Bond Academy (2025-12-29), at 32:43. Recording: https://sphinx.acast.com/p/open/s/68e695c6d798804c9e4bbd13/e/6948511af7567117397d1a93/media.mp3 · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-12-29-dead-drop-s1e8-the-james-bond-academy/

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From KiriPedia, the archive of John Kiriakou's words. Web version: https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/operations-course-graduation/ · About: https://www.kiripedia.org/about/ · Full index: https://www.kiripedia.org/llms.txt