Camps for U.S. military kids aim to ease anxieties

By Claudia Parsons

CHESTERTOWN, Maryland (Reuters) - Wide-eyed and interrupting occasionally with comments like "My dad's a Marine," a dozen or so boys listened avidly as Sgt. Roy Meredith described being injured by shrapnel in Iraq.

A former U.S. Marine now in the National Guard, Meredith returned from Iraq in March and was taking a day out of his regular duties to talk to children of military personnel at an "Operation Purple" summer camp in Maryland this month.

The free camps offer a week of outdoor activities and the chance to bond with other military children, giving parents a break while spouses are deployed in Iraq or Afghanistan.

"I didn't realize I was wounded for about a minute or so, then after we got done, I patched my own self up," Meredith said, showing the kids a medical bag with neck braces, bandages, IV packs and tourniquets.

"The gear we have now is the safest we've ever had," he said, adding that a vehicle beside him was an old Humvee and those used in Iraq now are "up-armored" for better protection.

"They'll stop machine gun rounds from coming and hurting anybody. Your parents are a lot safer than what I was before."

Next it was time for a relay race wearing the flak jackets, helmets and backpacks their military parents carry.

The pack was just a third the normal size, but it was still bigger than 6-year-old Drake Stokes.

Still, he was determined to finish the race, and with the help of a camp counselor who ran behind holding the pack up, he did it, helmet falling over his face.

"That hat was too big for me," he said, laughing, before getting his face painted with camouflage cream.

'KIDS SERVE TOO'

Operation Purple began in 2004 with 12 camps for nearly 1,000 children. This year 10,000 attended camps around the United States in a $6 million program whose sponsors include the Sierra Club and the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation.

"One of the main messages we try to get out at camp is that kids serve too," said Michelle Joyner, spokeswoman for the National Military Family Association, which runs the camps and estimates around 155,000 American children are experiencing the absence of a parent due to deployment in Iraq or Afghanistan.

"We want them to understand that we recognize they're making sacrifices," she said.

Most of the week is much like any other summer camp -- swimming, kayaking, a high-rope course, and pillow fights. One day is devoted to military-related activities.