Military children connect at R.I. camp
NARRAGANSETT, R.I. -- Adam Haynes said it was hard when his father came back "paranoid" from the war in Iraq. Nick Viens worries that his father might get killed on his next tour of duty there.
What makes it even more difficult to cope, said Haynes and Viens, both 12-year-olds from Rhode Island, is the feeling that they cannot share their emotions with friends who do not have relatives in the military.
"They won't understand it," said Todd McDevitt , 13, from Sutton, Mass., whose father is serving in Kosovo.
Last week, 95 children 9 to 13 years old from Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and Connecticut who are grappling with parents' deployments overseas got together at the Rhode Island National Guard's training ground at Camp Varnum to participate in Operation Purple, a summer camp program for children of military personnel.
The weeklong program, one of 34 held in 26 states this summer and coordinated by the National Military Families Association, was designed to help the children feel less alone while enjoying summer activities .
"Before I came here I thought that I was the only one in the world like that," said Timmy Hobson , 10, from Westerly, R.I., whose father is serving in Iraq. In addition to being surrounded by children who are familiar with wartime separation, Hobson said, his favorite part of the program was a trip to Adventureland, an amusement park in Narragansett.
The main purpose of the camp "is so that these children get to be children," said Kuuipo Ordway , a therapist and behavioral health consultant for Operation Purple, which was launched in 2004. Part of it, she said, was getting "to connect with other children" and "to express their feelings."
At Operation Purple camps, mental health counselors "try to get them to look at coping skills and how to handle their emotions" without making it look as though the children are going through therapy, Ordway said.
More than 155,000 American children have at least one parent serving in a war zone, according to the National Military Family Association. The American Academy of Pediatrics reports that these children may experience "anger, sadness, fear, confusion, and feelings of abandonment, loss, anxiety, and depression." Unlike other children who become separated from a parent -- in a divorce, for example -- military children feel that few other people understand what they are going through, the Psychoanalytic Couple and Family Institute of New England reported in 2005. The institute is based in Massachusetts.
This year, 4,000 children nationwide are participating in the program, which is sponsored by the Sierra Club, TriWest Healthcare Alliance, and the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation. The children, whose parents serve in all branches of the military, attend the camps for free.
In an effort to help the children understand and embrace what their parents do, Operation Purple adds a military twist to traditional summer activities. At Camp Varnum, the training ground for the 243 d Regiment of the Rhode Island National Guard, the children slept in barracks, attended flag ceremonies in the morning, ate in the mess hall, and marched along narrow-paved lanes with names such as Saudi Arabia Road and Tet Way.
"We do 'Mama, mama, can't you see,' " said Sergeant Eric Benz , a member of the 282 d Combat Communication Squadron of the Rhode Island Air National Guard, one of the camp's counselors, referring to a military marching cadence.
One sunny day last week, after a trip to the beach followed by a lunch of military-issue Meals Ready to Eat ("They loved it!" said Laura Paton , the camp director), a group of children played kickball on a large, grassy parade ground that overlooked rocky cliffs cascading to the Atlantic .
In the shade of a tarpaulin nearby, Taylor Jordan , 12, from East Providence , Haynes, from Coventry, and Viens, from Woonsocket, lounged in foldout canvas chairs and discussed "My War Diaries ," a show they have seen on Discovery's Military Channel.
"The one about the camels was awesome!" said Jordan, whose mother deployed to Iraq on July 6. Jordan's favorite aspects of being in camp with other military children were that "you kind of react the same way about things" and camping.
"I like when we light fires," she said. "It's very country-like."
On the lawn nearby, Benz led a group of children in a march, chanting: "Right, left, right!" A National Guardsman in camouflage uniform wielding a weed trimmer cut grass by the chain link fence along the ocean cliffs.
Badkhen can be reached at abadkhen@globe.com. 
