America
Camp of a Different Nature
Forget roasting marshmallows — young adults can board a submarine at a unique National Security camp that trains future heroes.
F BY DAVID A. PATTEN
or most, summer camp con- jures up images of canoeing, swimming, roasting marsh- mallows, and singing songs
by the campfire. What it does not evoke is touring a
Navy attack submarine, or conduct- ing a preflight inspection of an F-22 Raptor on the tarmac at Langley Air Force Base. Unless you’re Michelle King, that is. King, an 18-year-old high-school
student from Florida, had just that opportunity thanks to an exclusive summer camp hosted by Regent University in Virginia Beach. The Regent University Summer Govern- ment Camp takes students behind the scenes to some of the nation’s most sensitive military and national secu- rity installations. “They told us we had to keep
our ID on us and wear our name badges, and to make sure every- one was a member of our group, that someone didn’t accidental- ly sneak in with us,” King tells Newsmax of her unique, once- in-a-lifetime summer camp experience. “You go through metal detectors and stuff.” This is no Girl Scout camp.
In fact, its schedule reads more like a syllabus for a spy school straight out of Mission Impos- sible. Among the camp’s previ- ous activities: a visit to the Coast Guard control center that han-
22 NEWSMAX | AUGUST 2012
dles counterterrorism and port security in the sensitive Norfolk, Va., area; a field trip to Academi, the compa- ny formerly known as Black- water that trains members of the FBI and the military; a lecture by a molecular biolo- gist at a top-secret Army lab develop- ing chemical and biological defenses; and a field trip to a police bomb-squad unit. The non-residential Summer Government Camp is designed to expose high-school students to the behind-the-scenes toil going on 24/7 to keep the nation safe. Each morning, experts present
lectures on intelligence gathering, counterterrorism, civil liberties, law enforcement, and the national-secu- rity establishment. The afternoons are set aside for field trips to high-
level military installations and various security firms. The program gives 35 lucky camp-
ers a state-of-the-art experience that prepares them for “strategic leader- ship in government, law enforcement, and society,” according to the camp website at
regent.edu/govcamp.com. The cost for the one-week camp is
“Regent’s camp really hammered the importance of servant leadership, and how it unifies and brings all these pieces of national security together to make sure that it’s running smoothly.” — Camper Michelle King
just $350 per student, which includes meals, snacks, and field-trip transpor- tation. “It opens a whole new world for them,” says Dr. Gerson Moreno-Ria- no, the director of the camp and dean of Regent’s school of under- graduate studies. “Usually what they get in the media is that the military’s bad, the military’s aggressive, that we’re just war-mongering. “Here they see that these
are patriotic, outstanding men and women in various levels and areas of society, who are working hard, who have their country’s best interests in mind, who sacri- fice, who are intelligent and creative and are serving the country and serving others.” For King, the rare opportu-
KING/COURTESY OF MICHELLE KING
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