By NORINE ROWE
NAS Patuxent River Public Affairs

PATUXENT RIVER NAVAL AIR STATION, MD— More than 100 student leaders from across the nation visited NAS Patuxent River in February as part of a national program that helps outstanding high school juniors and seniors explore careers in the defense, intelligence and diplomacy fields.

Among those taking part in the National Youth Leadership Forum was John Supp III, a junior at Grace Brethren Christian School in Waldorf, whose father Jack Supp works as a systems engineer with NAVAIR’s Anti-Submarine Warfare Systems Program Office.

“I was interested in this program because I wanted to gain a better grasp of how our government works and how it deals with international crises,” said John, who learned about NYLF from a fellow student who previously attended the program and nominated him for it.

Students selected for the NYLF have demonstrated academic achievement and an interest in a career related to national security. John was joined by about 400 other outstanding high school students from across the nation for the weeklong forum on defense, intelligence and diplomacy.

“This program seemed like a good opportunity to develop some leadership skills,” John said. “It also piqued my interest because it had to do with defense and intelligence.”
During his weeklong experience, John learned about the way that intelligence agencies work with government departments to secure cooperation and assistance.

“I learned a lot about teamwork, leadership and how to get all parties to work together – people with different priorities and different agendas who don’t always have the same perspective on a difficult issue,” John said.

During his week in Washington, D.C., John and the other NYLF students took part in a facilitated crisis simulation involving Colombian rebels who took several hostages. The students had to explore how to get the hostages safely out of Panama without affecting the Panama Canal Zone. John’s role as “Senate Majority Leader” required that he determine where and how to get funding for the military operation.

“I learned what our government has to take into consideration when dealing with international crises,” John said, “such as determining the threat to our economy and democratic values, the impact of the crisis on the U.S. and the ramifications of taking action.”

As part of the NYLF curriculum, students meet with leaders from various federal agencies and institutions to examine how the U.S. plans for peace and prepares for crises.

“By participating in the National Youth Leadership Forum on Defense, Intelligence and Diplomacy, students like John Supp will develop a keenly educated perspective on the United States’ role in global conflict resolution,” said Donna Snyder, executive director of NYLF.

In addition to meeting with defense and intelligence professionals and conducting crisis simulations, NYLF students visited various Washington sites including the U.S. Capitol, the U.S. Senate and the Smithsonian Institution.

“It was a sobering and awe-inspiring experience for many of the students” who had never visited the nation’s capitol, John said. The participants included representatives from 47 states, including one from as far away as Hawaii.

In addition to touring the nation’s capitol, NYLF participants selected from a variety of other tour sites, including Patuxent River, the Marine Training Facility at Quantico, Va., and the International Spy Museum.

During the students’ tour of NAS Patuxent River, they visited the Aviation Survival Training Center where they took part in a demonstration on spatial disorientation and sensory physiology. They also visited the center’s Hypobaric Chamber, Ejection Seat Trainer and Virtual Reality Parachute Trainer. Leading the tour were HM3 John Ramirez and HM2(FMF) Ron Wichman.

“We were able to show the students the kind of training that pilots and aircrew are required to go through every four years,” said Wichman. “We were also able to impress upon them the importance of safety and how this training saves lives.”

In addition to the Aviation Survival Training Center, students toured the hangar at Air Test and Evaluation Squadron 1, the Atlantic Test Ranges Facility, and the hangar where the X-35 the Joint Strike Fighter is kept.

“It felt like I was looking at the future of American air power,” said John after seeing the X-35, the F/A-18 Super Hornet and the V-22 Osprey all in one day.

Pax River has participated in the NYLF program since its inception in 1991, and has hosted approximately 2,000 honors high school students from across the nation since then.

-USN-

Photo by Norine Rowe
HM2(FMF) Ron Wichman of the Aviation Survival Training Center demonstrates an ejection seat trainer to a group of students with the National Youth Leadership Forum. More than 100 NYLF students from across the nation toured the station in February.