September 24, 2015 at 3:51 p.m.
SEAL legacy lives on in Camp Spehar training session, completed by local young men
SEAL legacy lives on in Camp Spehar training session, completed by local young men
A couple of young men from this area also attended “camp” for a week this summer; but their memories of this are unlike most.
Situated on 800 acres, in rural Louisiana, is the Spehar Special Warfare Training Camp. The facility is posthumously named for Chisago City native Nicholas Spehar, a Navy SEAL team member who perished in 2011 in Afghanistan, when the helicopter he shared with 37 others was shot down. A memorial was built in Moberg Park in Chisago City, in memory of the loss.
Chisago Lakes high schooler Nic Bartz heard about Camp Spehar from Nicholas’s dad Patrick Spehar, who Bartz said was over at the house one day talking about his son and asking about Nic’s interest in serving in the U.S. military.
Bartz, 17, said, “The idea of camp never left my mind.”
When a good friend, Phil LaPlante, (just turned 18) expressed interest in taking on the challenges that the camp has to offer, they both signed up. They said they wouldn’t have gone to Camp Spehar without the other.
Said LaPlante, “Having a good friend with similar interests pressing me to join him was my main motivation,” in addition to being at a stage in life where he was seeking personal challenge.
LaPlante continued, “I couldn’t help but think it can’t be that bad.”
Still, he and Bartz talked for maybe a year, psyching themselves up before committing to the difficulties they expected.
Bartz and LaPlante flew out of Minneapolis airport to Atlanta, Georgia and then took a regional flight to Baton Rouge, where a Camp Spehar representative meets enrollees. More camp candidates are collected at an outdoors sporting goods store parking lot, and everybody gets into a van to take the last leg of the trip to camp. Blindfolded.
Bartz recalls this was “the longest drive of my life.” When the van stopped to let everybody out the chaos began. Candidates were immediately being shouted at to line up in the grass and do push-ups. Then came the “bear crawl to the beach,” all the while sirens are blaring. The crawl went down a gravel road and then, as they approached the water, wet sand. Bartz describes how dirty and shredded everybody’s clothes and skin were. Instructors ordered the candidates out of the water for more pushups and back in-the-water and then out, followed by a run to chow hall.
“By this time one candidate had already quit,” Bartz said.
LaPlante says he realized, “The only way to survive was to catch onto detail quickly or suffer the consequences.”
In their summer camp session 11 of 15 “graduated” making it the most successful group ever, LaPlante said proudly. Generally half the camp group won’t complete the session.
Not to say there weren’t moments when the stress, anxiety and physical exertion made their presence felt.
LaPlante talked about “Hell Night” as the worst of the week and he remembers telling himself, “Okay I can probably put up with about three more hours of this,” and a few second later, he heard the words ‘Congratulations you are secured for Camp Spehar” and the ordeal was over.
When he was handed the certificate later on-stage, “...none of it felt like it even began to do justice to what I had just undergone. I knew this was the peak of my life and the sum of my trials.
“Graduation was intensely personal, and the feeling could only be understood by my instructors and classmates.”
The camp exceeded what he expected to get out of it.
LaPlante commented that he found that deeper level of motivation inside.
“It is important to remember the instructors were there for our benefit and any corrections inflicted were done, not because they wanted us to quit but because they wanted quitters to quit.”
Bartz explained that candidates are allowed to quit at their own freewill. You tell an instructor ‘I quit’ and ring a big gold bell three times.
“I had some low points during the course but quitting was never an option.
“I am very glad that I attended ...I would suggest it to others especially if they are considering the military because it will prepare them. Even if they are not planning on a military career it is a fantastic challenge and you can learn alot.”
Both say their emotional and physical strengths got a workout and the end result is they learned they have an ability to work through any situation positively, and it was only by pushing the limits they were shown maybe they do have what it takes.
FYI...
Camp Spehar is for ages 16 and older.
Cost is approximately $500, not including getting there and back. There are scholarships available.
Electronic devices are prohibited for the week.
Camp Spehar is on youtube.com if you’d like to view a day-in-the-life.
Contact the camp through campspehar.com website or e mail camp spokesperson Kody Banks for winter session (December) or summer 2016 details: at [email protected].
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