Camp David, the last safe place? - CNN.com Camp David, the last safe place? By Bob Greene, CNN Contributor updated 9:03 AM EDT, Sun May 6, 2012 President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair meet March 26, 2003 at Camp David, Maryland. STORY HIGHLIGHTS President Obama has moved this month's G-8 summit from Chicago to Camp David Bob Greene says the presidential retreat is much more secure and isolated He says a security cordon envelops presidents wherever they go Greene: Still, a place like Camp David affords much more security Editor's note: CNN contributor Bob Greene is a best-selling author whose books include "Late Edition: A Love Story" and "Once Upon a Town: The Miracle of the North Platte Canteen." He appears on "CNN Newsroom" Sundays during the 5 p.m. ET hour.

(CNN) -- When the White House, back in March, made the unexpected announcement that this month's G-8 summit, long planned to take place in Chicago, was being moved to Camp David, the reasons given were bland: Camp David was taking over from Chicago "to facilitate a free-flowing discussion with our close G-8 partners," the White House announced. President Obama was said to believe that Camp David was a more intimate setting for the world leaders to get together. There was immediate conversation about the explanation. Past G-8 summits have been known to attract protests that culminated in violence in the streets of the cities where they have been held. Camp David -- the presidential retreat in Catoctin Mountain Park in Frederick County, Maryland -- is about as secure a sealed-off location as exists in this country. No one gets near it who is not supposed to get near it. Originally the Chicago G-8 summit was supposed to be immediately followed in Chicago by a separate summit of the leaders of NATO nations. The NATO meeting is still scheduled for Chicago; like the G-8 meeting, it will be hosted by Obama.

Demonstrations are planned, and heavy security will be in place with the intention of keeping protesters well away from where the NATO leaders are convening. Increasingly, over the years, cities that engage in grand talk about "bringing the world" to see their many civic and cultural attributes end up going into a defensive crouch at the same time they are welcoming their global visitors. It's the only wise course; we live in an age where terrorists know that the bigger the stage, the greater the opportunity for maximum impact. And in these jittery times, any occasion when a specific city becomes an enormous public stage, it also becomes a presumed potential target. There is an intake of breath that starts before the event commences, and that is not let out until after it concludes. In London, site of this summer's Olympic Games, there have been reports of plans for surface-to-air missiles to be installed as protective measures right in the city, including on the roofs of apartment buildings. Hardly the symbol of a joyous and carefree gathering of the planet's finest young athletes -- but, then, the planet has proved itself to be an often dangerous place, so discus throwers, twirling gymnasts and powerful missiles may have to share the setting.

Faster, higher, stronger -- the athletes, and the weapons in place to keep them safe. President Jimmy Carter, Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian President Mohamed Anwar al-Sadat during peace talks at Camp David, Maryland. If the G-8 summit in the isolated and wooded hills of Maryland comes off as a model of protected tranquility, and is followed by messy scenes of street disorder at the NATO summit in Chicago, it will not be surprising if Camp David, which already has a long history of hosting distinguished guests of presidents, becomes the prototype for future top-level gatherings around the world as well as at home. And if that takes place, it will not be as big a shift as it superficially will seem. When the president visits troops in perilous areas overseas, he is described as "going into a war zone." But in fact, anywhere in the United States where a president travels these days receives war-zone security treatment. On television, a presidential meeting with dignitaries in a city away from Washington appears to take place in sedate, often elegant, rooms. But behind the camera shot -- outside the buildings where a president and his guests are meeting -- is security befitting preparedness for an imminent attack.

Follow @CNNOpinion on Twitter and at Facebook/CNNOpinion Concrete barriers, war wagons filled with security personnel with automatic weapons at the ready, human ring after human ring of law enforcement assigned to keep all unauthorized persons away ... the heart of any city where a modern-era president passes through is routinely turned into a temporary militarized bunker. As early as 1968, when political violence stained the year, people were predicting that future presidential campaigns might be conducted solely from television studios. Some said this would never happen; security fears aside, the public would never allow its leaders to speak to them from such a sterile and locked-off environment. Yet, in a backhanded way, it has turned out to be true. The television studio has become the moving impermeable bubble where a president resides when he is out in the nation. Camp David, a bucolic federal campsite turned into a presidential retreat by Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who called it USS Shangri-La, was renamed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in honor of his grandson. It was widely seen as a way for presidents to get some peace and quiet, away from the tension and tumult of their daily world. To dress and act casually, free from staring eyes.

Few people, of course, have firsthand knowledge of what it is like there. Ronald Reagan summed up the feeling in his autobiography: "The president's home at Camp David, called Aspen, is a beautiful rustic house with beamed ceilings, wood-paneled walls ... Nancy and I experienced a sense of liberation at Camp David that we never found in Washington. Because the perimeter was guarded, we could just open a door and take a walk. That's a freedom, incidentally, that you don't fully appreciate until you've lost it." Foreign dignitaries came to call on presidents there, in a less formal, more relaxed setting than official Washington. While most Americans can envision the White House, they never have really seen, in full, Camp David. You can't tour the place, or even look at it from outside. There have been references to it in popular entertainment: the 1965 Fletcher Knebel political thriller novel, "Night of Camp David"; the scene in the 1995 motion picture "The American President" in which Michael Douglas, as a widower president, sits with the woman he is falling in love with, played by Annette Bening, watching television in his (movie-set) Camp David cabin.

There is a subtle difference at play in the way the G-8 summit at Camp David is being regarded. It's not so much that the president and his guests want to get away from the world. It's that a way needed to be found to keep the world away from them. Will that turn out to be the way of the future? With the possible exception of the United States Bullion Depository at Fort Knox, Kentucky, there is perhaps no other place in the country designed so determinedly for absolute privacy. (From the official description of Fort Knox provided by the U.S. Mint: "No visitors are permitted, and no exceptions are made.") Whatever else happens at the G-8 summit, that thought, and its implications, are what may endure. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Bob Greene. Part of complete coverage on Dwight D. Eisenhower: Family Life—Miller Center About the Administration Before he became President, Dwight D. Eisenhower had to balance family life against the obligations of military life. Duty took him to many different locations within the United States and around the world.

At various times during the 1920s and 1930s, he and Mamie lived in Paris and the Panama Canal Zone, Washington, D.C., and Washington State. During their first 35 years of married life, the Eisenhowers moved more than 30 times. They began raising a family in 1917 with the birth of a son, Doud Dwight, fondly known as "Icky." As they celebrated Christmas in Camp Meade, Maryland, in 1920, "Icky" became ill with scarlet fever, then a disease that physicians could do nothing to cure. In early January, "Icky" died. Eisenhower later wrote, "This was the greatest disappointment and disaster of my life." They had a second son, John, in 1922. Like his father, he graduated from West Point and then spent two decades in the Army, reaching the rank of lieutenant colonel. He served his father, the President, as a military aide and eventually became an accomplished military historian. During World War II, military life imposed real hardships, as the Eisenhowers were separated almost continuously for more than three years.

After eighteen months apart, they had two weeks together in January 1944, when Eisenhower returned to Washington from London to discuss preparations for the D-Day operation. More than a year later, after Germany surrendered, Eisenhower asked General George C. Marshall, the wartime chief of staff, if Mamie could join him in Europe. Marshall said no, as it would not be fair to all the other Army couples that duty had separated. The Eisenhowers had to settle for a few days together in Washington in June 1945. Not until the end of the year, when Eisenhower returned to the United States to succeed Marshall as Army chief of staff, were they finally reunited. Those years were lonely and difficult, especially because of rumors that Eisenhower developed a romantic relationship with Kay Summersby. The British assigned Summersby as Eisenhower's driver in 1942, and she remained on his staff throughout the war. She was attractive and engaging, and she sometimes appeared in photographs with Eisenhower that Mamie would see in the newspapers. Eisenhower enjoyed her company, but he wrote frequently to Mamie that he wanted nothing more than to be together with her again.

Soon after the war, Summersby wrote a book in which she said that she had a strong but platonic relationship with her wartime boss. A quarter-century later, as she was dying of cancer, she wrote a second book, Past Forgetting, in which she claimed that she and Eisenhower had had a love affair. No other member of Eisenhower's wartime staff ever provided confirmation of Summersby's assertions. Like millions of other Americans, the Eisenhowers overcame the strains of war by being together again. They still moved frequently—Washington, New York, and Paris—but finally enjoyed the luxury of eight years in one home—the White House. Duty once again competed with family time, but at least grandchildren were nearby after John became an aide to his father in 1958. Family life even altered official life in a small but enduring way. After the remodeling of the presidential retreat in the Maryland mountains that Franklin D. Roosevelt had called Shangri-La, Eisenhower renamed it after his grandson—Camp David.

Eisenhower also enjoyed the company of a group of friends that he called "the gang." Most of the eight or nine members of "the gang" were wealthy business leaders who liked spending time with the President and making it easy for him to relax. They joined him on fishing trips to Colorado or golfing vacations to Georgia, and they came to the White House for evenings of conversation and bridge. They provided him with gifts, even helping to pay for the construction of the Eisenhower Cabin at the Augusta National Golf Club. Sometimes Mamie joined the President on social occasions with "the gang" and their wives, but since she disliked exercise, Eisenhower often found enjoyment in what he called "stag" events, recreation that involved just him and his male companions. Retirement provided the Eisenhowers with more time than ever before to spend together. They enjoyed those years on their Gettysburg farm as well as the travels that took them to many places in the United States and overseas. Eisenhower remained active in public life until ill health restricted his activities in the final year before his death in March 1969. But during their last eight years together, Dwight and Mamie Eisenhower at last had all the time they desired for family life. Dwight D.

Eisenhower Essays Camp David Presidential Retreat Camp David Presidential Retreat By: Craig Shipp Location: Thurmont, Maryland, Fredrick County, USA A presidential retreat in the Catoctin Mountains of northern Maryland north-northwest of Washington, D.C. It was established by Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1942 as Shangri-La. Dwight D. Eisenhower renamed it Camp David in honor of his grandson. Camp David is a Presidential weekend retreat in Maryland 's Catoctin Mountains. Originally a military base, it was turned over to the White House during the Great Depression and was named Shangri-La by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. President Dwight Eisenhower renamed it Camp David for his grandson David. It consists of 180 forested acres, protected by a ring of three fences and marine guard patrols. It is maintained by 150 naval personnel and, when the President is in residence, by 250 other support staff. It contains a number of residence cabins for the President and his guests, who often include foreign heads of state. Camp David also has a heated pool, skeet range, tennis courts, and horseshoe pit.

It has a conference center where administration officials can meet with the President when he is on a “working vacation.” Expenses for Camp David are part of the Navy Department budget. Click Here for a full-screen slideshow (many photos)! Camp David (or Naval Support Facility Thurmont) is a United States Navy installation. The Camp is commanded by an O-5 (Commander's Rank.) Sailors are mostly Seabees and most officers are in the civil engineering field. The Navy Seabee Detachment does maintenance and beautification. The sailors must attain " Yankee White " security clearance, the highest level clearance in the Department of Defense (DOD). The sailors are hand picked for their service at Camp David and represent the best of the U.S. Navy. Some of the sailors include: grounds and maintenance personnel, electricians, carpenters, corpsman, and the President's cooks (mess specialists). Click the play arrow below to start a Camp David photo slide show: Video Channel - Presidential History of Frederick County including Camp David: Video clips include Mark Hudson of the Historical Society of Frederick County at the Thurmont Regional Library .

The Camp is alleged to be one of the most secure facilities in the world, as reported by a Department of Defense journal in 1998 . The Facility is guarded by one of the United States Marine Corps ' most elite units, MSC-CD (Marine Security Company, Camp David). Each Marine is hand picked from the infantry and sent through a battery of psychological and physical tests. He then must undergo specialized security training at the Marine Corps Security Forces School , in Chesapeake, Virginia . The Marines then report to Marine Barracks, Washington, D.C. Assuming the Marines successfully complete all their schooling, they still must attain "Yankee White" security clearance. Only then will the Marines be eligible for the assignment at Camp David. After 12 months of service at Camp David, a Marine is awarded the Presidential Service Badge . Typically tours at Camp David are 18-24 months. ï¿½ President Carter described the retreat: Camp David is trully beautiful, with the cottages (all named after trees) and paths snuggled on top and down one side of a small mountain and sheltered by a thick growth of stately oak, poplar, ash, locust, hickory, and maple trees.

A security fence encompasses about 125 acres of rocky terrain, and the close proximity of the living quarters engenders an atmosphere of both isolation and intimacy, conducive to easing tension and encouraging informality. A few golf carts and bicycles were available, but most of the time people walked among the cottages and meeting places. To prove that there is no such thing as a secret a quick google search turned up the following information regarding many government compounds including Camp David: One article titled Bunkers Beyond the Beltway included: The federal government back-up system - The centralization of the federal government at Washington DC has its obvious drawbacks from a security standpoint. Despite a reportedly extensive underground bunker network in the Capitol region (underground command centers with multiple levels have been built under the East Wing of the White House and under the Pentagon, for example), the federal government has maintained the strategy that, in the event of a truly serious situation, its best to head for the hills.

Duplicating and securing the federal government beyond the beltway initiated an underground building boom that began in the 1950’s, and lead to the creation of almost a hundred "continuity of government" locations within the Federal Arc, a 300 mile radius around the capitol, according to published reports in the press.* These facilities were built to house representatives of nearly all the branches of government, in underground shelters, to sit out the fallout from a nuclear war, and to be able to continue the operations of a federal government once the bombardment stopped. As important as maintaining personnel to carry out the command of government, is the ability to know what is going on in the country and the world, and to be able to communicate, internally and externally. Therefore, a lot of the effort to build back-up systems for the federal government in the event of a nuclear war involved the creation of invulnerable communications systems. Much of this infrastructure, built in the Cold War, is still in use today, with renewed importance in the terrorism era. Some of it is operated by the Defense department, some by secretive intelligence organizations, and some is operated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

The two biggest and most important federal bunkers beyond the beltway are Mount Weather and Raven Rock, in Virginia and Pennsylvania, respectively. Site R, as Raven Rock is often called, is the alternate command center for the Pentagon. Mount Weather is the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s primary hub. Both have somewhere in the neighborhood of 600,000 to 700,000 square feet of underground space, though Raven Rock may be slightly larger. Together, these two facilities function as the main relocation sites for the highest level civilian and military officials, and what is called, seemingly interchangeably, the "Continuity of Government" and the "Continuity of Operations Plan" (COOP). The present day version of this plan, when it is activated, as recent articles in national newspapers have claimed, calls for 75 to 100 government workers to be kept in one of two underground locations, briefed daily and prepared to take over if the active, elected government is wiped out. COOP was activated hours after the attacks on September 11, and since that time these unknown individuals have been serving in rotations lasting up to three months, in Raven Rock and Mount Weather.

Raven Rock gets its name from the hill where it is located, a 650 surface acre site in southern Pennsylvania, next to the Maryland state line. It was first hollowed out in the early 1950’s, and went on line in 1954. Its officially stated function is as the Alternate Joint Communications Center, and a contingency relocation site for the Joint Staff Support Center, a division of the Pentagon. For much of the Cold War, Site R is said to have had a full-time staff of 350, including representatives of the major military departments and the Joint Chiefs of Staff, with space enough for an additional 2,600 people. Site R was supported by nearby Fort Ritchie, Maryland, a 638 acre Army post, with over 2,000 employees, that closed in the 1990’s. It is now administered out of Fort Detrick, Maryland. The Defense Information Systems Agency, Western Hemisphere, a military division that calls itself the "Guardians of the Rock," operates the communication and command center located in the bunker. This is the underground site that is reportedly most favored by Vice President Dick Cheney.

The other major Continuity of Operations Plan site is the Mount Weather complex, in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. While Site R is dominated by its role as a Department of Defense command facility, Mount Weather is a "civilian" command facility, the center of operations for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). For its FEMA role as the National Emergency Coordinating Center, it has extensive communication facilities that link it to the nationwide network of FEMA bunkers, relocation sites, and to the White House Situation Room. Underground, there are sleeping accommodations for 2,000, including private sleeping quarters for the President, Cabinet, and the Supreme Court, as well as all the functions required to support large numbers of people underground for considerable periods, such as 500,000 gallons of water that are stored on site, a hospital and a crematorium. The blast door for the main tunnel portal weighs 34 tons and is 5 feet thick. On the surface, the site covers 434 acres, and has several large buildings, including conference and training buildings for FEMA. The government first used the site in 1903 as a weather station.

Tunnel boring began in the 1950’s, by the Bureau of Mines and the Army Corps of Engineers, and cost as much as $1 billion in today’s dollars. The number of people on site fluctuates from a few hundred to over 1,000, depending on alert status. The most famous of the federal "retreats" is Camp David, located in Catoctin Mountain Park, a National Park Service area near Thurmont, Maryland, and only a few miles from Site R, and the Federal Emergency Training Center in Emmitsburg. The rustic cabins at the camps have been replaced over the years with semi-rustic-looking bungalows that have the luxuries demanded of heads of state. Approximately 50 buildings are clustered around the highest point in the park, within a 125 acre fenced area, designated as Department of Defense property within the park. Reports about the extent of the underground bunkers at Camp David vary, but there is known to be an underground communications center and a VIP bomb shelter, constructed in 1959. Rumors abound about more extensive facilities, including a tunnel connecting Camp David to Site R.

The surrounding park is open to the public, and has a few other "camps" with clusters of buildings, some clearly in use by military personnel, such as the sailors and marines that protect and maintain Camp David. A few miles from Site R and Camp David, the National Emergency Training Center in Emmitsburg, Maryland, is a training campus for the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The Center was established in 1979, at a 107 acre site originally occupied by St. Joseph’s College, a liberal arts college which closed in 1973. Classrooms and some field training facilities are located on site. The emphasis is training for civilian emergency professionals, such as fire fighters, and emergency response managers and coordinators. A sample of training course titles includes: "Advanced Radiological Accident Assessment - Post-Plume Phase," "Use of Auto-Injectors by Civilian Emergency Medical Personnel to Treat Civilians Exposed to Nerve Agent," and "Mass Fatalities Incident Course." Thousands are trained here every year, and an increase in terrorist related curricula is drawing more students from all over the country.

Part of the communication infrastructure designed to support the federal government, is the mysterious and extensive complex known as the Warrenton Training Center (WTC), located in rural Virginia. Warrenton’s, Station B, the largest of the four locations that make up the WTC, is a 346 acre communications center operated by the Defense Department, with underground bunkers, of unknown extent, for the protection of federal communications infrastructure and for the personnel assigned to protect it (and possibly for other purposes as well). Officially, WTC is administered by the Army to support the National Communications System, an entity established by President Kennedy, that is mandated to provide communications for the federal government, under any circumstance, including those following an all-out nuclear attack. This infrastructure links all the federal emergency bunkers, and provides service for most of the major federal governmental departments, from Agriculture and Energy, to Defense and the NSA.

Little is officially released about the function of WTC, though the Federation of American Scientists states that "there are a large number of multi-story buildings" at Station B, "including a number of buildings constructed in the late 1980’s." Warrenton, Station A is an administrative, training, and residential compound, located close to the town of Warrenton. There are numerous buildings on site, from residences to brick office-type buildings. Station C and D are more remote, and seem to be primarily vast antenna sites. At least one of the two are suspected to have other functions as well, including as "numbers stations" for the CIA, transmitting coded signals for the federal intelligence gathering infrastructure. The Olney Federal Support Center, near Laytonville, Maryland, is a communications and data network site, with known and unknown functions. Located at a former Nike missile base, this location consists of a vast field of antennas, with several surface buildings. It is next to a National Guard detachment, and a large landfill, which has helped fuel suspicions that extensive digging has taken place at the site (the disposal of the dirt from secret subterranean excavation projects is always an issue for the builders of these sites, according to some underground researchers).

It is known to be part of FEMA’s National Radio System, a high-frequency radio network that links FEMA’s emergency operations centers. Rumors about multiple levels underground have been circulated primarily by UFOlogists and conspiracy theorists. A number of the original continuity of government sites were closed in the 1990’s. The most well known of these secret bunkers was code-named Casper, and was kept prepared for congressional members (most of whom were unaware of its existence). This 112,000 square foot bunker, 64 feet underneath the posh Greenbriar Resort in West Virginia, opened in 1962. It had dining facilities (with landscapes painted behind fake windows), a hospital, beds for up to 1,000 people, and separate chambers for the House and the Senate. As recently as 1992 it was staffed by a crew, masquerading as a television repair company, which even kept a current supply of the prescription drugs used by the individual members of Congress, in case the site was activated, according to a CBS news story on the bunker that aired after it was officially decommissioned in 1995.

Mount Pony is another major underground federal bunker which is no longer in use as part of the continuity of government plan. This 140,000 square foot, hardened underground complex, near Culpeper, Virginia, opened in 1969, and was used until 1992 by the U. S. Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve. Until 1988, over a billion dollars in currency was stored here to resupply the nation in the event of a devastating nuclear attack, much of it in the form of two dollar bills. For many years it was also the location of the Culpeper Switch, the principal hub of the Federal Reserve’s 40,000 mile secure communications system, that routed the trillions of dollars that pass through the Feds electronic systems annually.

(The Federal Reserve is said to have had bunkers for nine of the system’s 12 regional branches, including a 44,000 square foot bunker in western Massachusetts that served the Boston Federal Reserve Bank, acquired in 1992 by Amherst College.) Until 1992, as a government relocation center, the Mount Pony facility had a regular staff of 100 on hand to care for selected government officials who would flee to the site in the event of nuclear war. In 1997, the site was transferred to the Library of Congress for use as an archival storage facility called the National Audio-Visual Conservation Center, scheduled to open in 2005. While many of the continuity of government sites established during the Cold War were designed for existing departments and divisions of the federal government (Congress, Treasury, the Supreme Court, etc.), some facilities housed new and lesser known federal entities, that would gain importance in the event of an emergency, such as a nuclear war. A now unoccupied bunker below the basement of the Lewis Hall of Science at Western Maryland College is an interesting case in point.

This 6,000 square foot chamber, accessed by elevator, and equipped with a broadcast facility connected to FEMA’s communications infrastructure, was for the leaders of the United State Office of Censorship, later renamed the Wartime Information Security Program. In the event of a war, a group of eight appointed individuals, and a staff of 40, were to convene at this location to assume their duties leading the national censorship of news broadcast and print media, according to federally mandated emergency guidelines, listed in manuals and code books stored in the bunker. One of the directors of this program was the Vice-President of CBS. In a society such as ours, it is common to have murky alliances between the federal government and private companies that manage systems critical to defense and commerce. Corporations such as AT&T, for example, have continuity of operations plans and underground back up control centers of their own. If the variety and extent of known underground facilities maintained by the federal government in the Federal Arc is any indication of the pervasiveness of this form of architecture, an inventory of America’s underground spaces would be nearly impossible to compile. The depth and breadth of this subsurface layer of the built landscape will most likely remain obscure, as it was intended to be.

National Park Service - The Presidents (Camp David) Catoctin Mountain Park Since the time of Franklin D. Roosevelt, when it was known as "Shangri-la," this isolated camp in the hills of western Maryland has served as an official Presidential retreat and has often been the site of conferences and decisions of national and international significance. Heavily guarded, it may not be visited by the public. In March 1942 President Roosevelt directed the National Park Service to investigate locations reasonably close to the Washington area for use as a Presidential retreat. One of his reasons for desiring to establish it was the wartime necessity to remain close to the Capital at all times and to limit visits to his home at Hyde Park, N.Y. Also, for security reasons, naval officials had recommended that he discontinue weekend use of the Presidential yacht, the U.S.S. Potomac. Because of his aversion to air conditioning and the oppressive summer heat and humidity of Washington, his medical advisers recommended that he seek respite in a nearby region of high altitude. Dwight D. Eisenhower's oil painting of one of the cottages at Camp David. (Oil, undated, by Dwight D. Eisenhower, David H.

Marx, Shrewsbury, N.J.) After studying several locations, the National Park Service selected three tentative sites: one in Shenandoah National Park, in Virginia, and the other two in the Catoctin Recreational Demonstration Area, in Maryland. The President chose one of the latter two sites, known as Camp Number Three or Camp Hi-Catoctin. By using the existing buildings there, the retreat could be completed in the shortest possible time and at minimum cost. The camp also occupied a perfect location, atop Catoctin Mountain at an altitude of about 1,700 feet above sea level; experienced a consistently lower temperature than Washington; and was only about 70 miles, or a 2-hour drive, from the White House. The camp was one of three units the Federal Government had constructed between 1936 and 1939 as part of an experiment to establish public recreation facilities out of industrially depleted and worn-out lands. Although portions of the area had been opened to the public in 1937, the events leading up to World War II had ended the project prematurely.

In April 1942 Roosevelt visited the camp and chose as its nucleus and his personal residence an existing cabin, a one-room frame structure with a huge stone fireplace, an open porch, and an outside kitchen. Rebuilt by local laborers and the crew of the U.S.S. Potomac, which was transferred to the retreat in June, the completed structure, or lodge, contained a living-dining room, probably the original room; an enlarged, screened-in porch; a bedroom wing to the south; and a kitchen wing to the north. The exterior was constructed of local stone and hardwood; the interior, mainly of commercially obtained materials. A special feature of the lodge was a hinged wall that could be used as an emergency exit ramp for the crippled President. Furnishings consisted of various items from the White House attic and Navy storage. Above the main entrance of the lodge, which looked out over a small, trout-stocked pond, workmen hung the Presidential seal. Laborers also assembled a communications building out of three existing cabins; combined two others to form a guest lodge; altered another structure for use as servants' sleeping quarters; and constructed a log gatehouse to guard the access road.

Landscaping included selective removal of trees and shrubbery to accommodate the eastward view; additional planting in the vicinity of the main lodge; some clearing to aid in construction; and the obliteration of old service roads. Labor in the swimming pool area involved landscaping, road improvement, and the erection of a frame platform and tent for use as a dressing room. Utility work included the installation of water, power, and telephone lines and an underground intercommunication system. On July 5 the President inspected the retreat, which he had named "Shangri-la" in April. The secluded mountaintop setting of James Hilton's novel Lost Horizon, it had also been the code name for the secret starting point of James Doolittle's raid over Tokyo on April 18. Among the names Roosevelt applied to individual buildings were "The Bear's Den" (the main lodge), "The Soap Dish" (the laundry), "The Baker Street Urchins" (Secret Service building), and "Little Luzon" (Philippine stewards' cabin). Before his death in April 1945, he visited "Shangri-la" 22 more times.

The most distinguished guests he entertained there were Prime Minister Winston Churchill of Great Britain on two occasions and the British Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden. Roosevelt's successor, Harry S Truman, used the retreat only a few times. President Eisenhower, however, was a frequent visitor and renamed it Camp David in honor of his grandson. He also redesignated the main lodge as "Aspen." The Eisenhowers not only repaired, repainted, and refurnished most of the cabins, but they also added a large flagstone terrace and picnic and outdoor cooking facility in the area of the main lodge. The President also installed a golf green and several tees. Because they owned a farm near Gettysburg, Pa., only 20 miles to the north, the Eisenhowers found the retreat to be convenient, especially while they were erecting a residence at the farm. Their most famous guest, in 1959, was Premier Nikita Khrushchev of the Soviet Union. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION Historic Resource Study Presidents Kennedy and Johnson rarely utilized Camp David, though in 1965 the latter conferred there with Lester Pearson, Prime Minister of Canada.

It was President Nixon's favorite retreat when he was in Washington, not only for relaxing and meeting with foreign dignitaries, but also for working. President Ford seldom visited the retreat. Extensive modernization of the facilities at the camp has occurred since Roosevelt's time, including installation of a helicopter pad, new figure-eight swimming pool, bowling alley, and skeet shooting range. There are now 11 residence cabins, including the main lodge, which is presently called "Laurel." The President utilizes a three-room cottage, named "Birch," as an office. In 1954 the Federal Government created Catoctin Mountain Park, which surrounds Camp David, out of almost 6,000 acres of the old Catoctin Recreational Demonstration Area. The remainder of the area was transferred to the State of Maryland, which now operates it as Cunningham Falls State Park. Catoctin Mountain Park is primarily a wilderness and public recreational area that provides nature and hiking trails and picnicking and camping facilities.

Camp David | A History of the Presidential Retreat Presidential Factfile For more than 50 years now, when presidents have wanted privacy, they have sought the cool, secluded lodges and cabins of Camp David , the presidential retreat tucked away in Maryland's Catoctin Mountains. Presidents have entertained visiting heads of state, such a former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill , conducted cabinet meetings, and briefed Congressional leaders at the retreat. The 1978 Middle East peace talks concluded with what have become known as the Camp David Accords. Yet few Americans know much about the place, considering its prominence. Federal Summer Camp It all started in 1935, when the Work Projects Administration , WPA, began building the Catoctin Recreational Demonstration Area Project near Thurmont, Maryland, as an example of creating parks from worn-out agricultural land. Three years later, the area opened as a camp for federal government employees and their families. Known as Hi-Catoctin, the facility consisted of several small cabins, a dining hall, and a swimming pool. Covered with trees and 1,800 feet above sea level, the spot provided a cool respite from the near tropical humidity of the Washington, DC, area.

Meanwhile, immediately after America's entry into World War II, doctors for President Franklin Delano Roosevelt were urging the ailing president to find a place convenient to Washington, yet far enough away to escape the heat and political pressures of the city. The presidential yacht, USS Potomac, was out of the question because of heightened security considerations imposed by the war. After a search committee considered two other sites on Furnace Mountain on the Virginia side of the Potomac River below Harper's Ferry; and Shenandoah National Park, Virginia; Roosevelt toured two sites in the Catoctin Mountains. He picked Hi-Catoctin, issuing a set of instructions on how the buildings should be remodeled and asking for the construction of a main lodge, which resembled the Roosevelt winter vacation home in Warm Springs, Georgia. The initial work cost $25,000. The camp was renamed the USS Shangri La, to follow up on the nautical connection, since many workers involved with the Potomac worked on the camp. Popular Presidential Choice Since Roosevelt inaugurated Shangri-La with a three-day visit beginning July 18, 1942, all subsequent presidents have made extensive use of the mountain top retreat.

President Harry Truman did not visit Shangri-La often because Bess, his wife, felt it was dull. However, when they did visit, the Trumans enjoyed Shangri-La. Truman's favorite sport was walking and he spent long hours wandering the mountain trails with a secret service agent in tow. Renamed Camp David President Dwight Eisenhower changed the name of the retreat to Camp David in honor of his grandson, David Eisenhower. Although he and his wife, Mamie, tended to use Camp David for private relaxation, Eisenhower held the first cabinet meeting ever to take place there. He also hosted British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan and Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev at Camp David. President John Kennedy and his family visited the camp often, enjoying the horseback riding and other recreational opportunities. Kennedy also allowed White House staff and cabinet members to use Camp David when he was not there. President Lyndon Johnson held several important discussions with advisers on the Vietnam War, the crisis in the Dominican Republic, and other world events, at Camp David and hosted Prime Minister and Mrs. Harold Holt of Australia. Reconstruction and Improvements President Richard Nixon used Camp David as much as his five predecessors combined.

Nixon had several new buildings built in compatible architectural styles, but complete with modern conveniences. He held cabinet meetings, staff conferences, hosted foreign dignitaries, and family get togethers at Camp David. President Gerald Ford rode around Camp David on a snowmobile, and hosted President and Mrs. Suharto of Indonesia. President Jimmy Carter hosted the now famous Camp David Summit in 1978, between Egyptian President Anwar al-Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, and resulted in what are now known as the Camp David Accords establishing peace between Egypt and Israel. Carter also enjoyed fly-fishing. President Ronald Reagan spent more time at Camp David than any other president. He liked horseback riding and working in the woodworking shop. Nancy Reagan worked on various landscaping improvements and updated decorating in some of the buildings. They also hosted British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. A Camp David Wedding President George Bush pitched horseshoes at Camp David, and welcomed Prince Charles to the retreat. In 1992, Bush's daughter, Dorothy "Doro" married Bobby Koch at Camp David, the first wedding ever performed there.

While President Bill Clinton visited Camp David infrequently in the early days of his administration, he did hold a week-long retreat on management with incoming administration officials in 1993. As his term progressed, however, Clinton spent more time at the retreat. President George W. Bush is a frequent visitor to Camp David, and has spent hundreds of days there. He has entertained numerous foreign leaders there as well as friends and family. Did you know? 10 Things You May Not Know About Dwight D. Eisenhower - History in the Headlines 10 Things You May Not Know About Dwight D. Eisenhower October 9, 2015 By Christopher Klein Share This five-star general and 34th U.S. president launched the Space Race and created the federal interstate highway system. Share this: 10 Things You May Not Know About Dwight D. Eisenhower Author 10 Things You May Not Know About Dwight D. Eisenhower URL President Dwight D. Eisenhower was born on October 14, 1890, in a modest, two-story frame house in Denison, Texas.

Check out 10 surprising facts about the five-star general who also served as America’s 34th president. 1. His birth name was David Dwight Eisenhower. Eisenhower’s parents originally gave him the same first name as his father—David. However, the future president’s mother, Ida, soon had second thoughts. She didn’t want her boy mistakenly called David Eisenhower Jr. (his father, David Jacob Eisenhower, had a different middle name) or deal with the confusion of having two Davids in the house, so she transposed his name to Dwight David Eisenhower. His original birth name, however, remained inked in the family Bible and was printed in his high school yearbook. Eisenhower during World War II. (Credit: Imperial War Museum) 2. Eisenhower never saw active combat. Although he spent 35 years in the military and served during both world wars, Eisenhower never saw a single day of active combat. After graduating from the U.S. Military Academy in 1915, he served at various camps across the United States. Eisenhower requested an overseas assignment when America entered World War I, but he remained in training roles at home.

By the time the United States entered World War II more than two decades later, Eisenhower had risen to become one of America’s top generals. He eventually was appointed supreme commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force in Europe. David Eisenhower at Camp David. 3. Camp David is named after his grandson. Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry Truman originally called the Maryland presidential retreat, which opened in 1938, “Shangri-La” after the fictional Himalayan paradise. Eisenhower, however, wanted a less formal moniker so he renamed it in 1953 in honor of his 5-year-old grandson, David. “Shangri-La was just a little fancy for a Kansas farm boy,” he wrote in a 1953 letter to friend Edward “Swede” Hazlett. Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev, who was brought by Eisenhower to the retreat, thought it sounded like a place where “stray dogs were sent to die,” but President John F. Kennedy and all subsequent chief executives have kept the name. Eisenhower playing golf on White House lawn. (Credit: Hank Walker/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images) 4.

Eisenhower banished the White House’s squirrels because they were ruining his putting green. In the spring of 1954, the American Public Golf Association installed an outdoor putting green just steps away the Oval Office. To the dismay of Eisenhower, who was an avid golfer, the squirrels who roamed the White House grounds continually dug up the putting green to bury their acorns and walnuts. “The next time you see one of those squirrels go near my putting green, take a gun and shoot it!” he ordered his valet, Sergeant John Moaney. The Secret Service, however, wisely avoided the use of guns, and instead groundskeepers trapped the squirrels and released them into Rock Creek Park. 5. His first son died of scarlet fever at age 3. Dwight and Mamie Eisenhower’s first son, Doud Dwight, was born on September 24, 1917. Little “Icky” was a happy child, but as Christmas 1920 approached, he fell ill with scarlet fever. The illness soon morphed into meningitis, and the 3-year-old died on January 2, 1921.

The following year the couple had their only other child, John. Eisenhower at Columbia University. (Credit: FPG/Archive Photos/Getty Images) 6. He was once president of Columbia University. Eisenhower never served in elected office before becoming president of the United States, but he did have presidential experience as leader of Manhattan’s Columbia University between 1948 and 1950. The job of heading an Ivy League institution was never a comfortable fit, and he left when Truman offered him the role of Supreme Allied Commander of the newly formed North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Eisenhower painting while on vacation. (Credit: Carl Iwasaki/The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images) 7. Eisenhower was an avid painter in his later years. While president of Columbia, Eisenhower took up painting as a hobby after watching artist Thomas Stephens paint a portrait of Mamie. During his years in the White House, Eisenhower paid a visit to a small second-floor studio to paint for 10 minutes before lunch. Among his more than 200 paintings were landscapes and portraits of his wife, George Washington and Abraham Lincoln.

His works were even displayed at a 1967 show in a New York art museum, although Eisenhower told a reporter, “They would have burned this [expletive] a long time ago if I weren’t the president of the United States.” Eisenhower on first helicopter ride (Credit: Smithsonian Air & Space Museum) 8. He was the first president to ride in a helicopter. At Eisenhower’s suggestion, the Secret Service approved of the use of helicopters as a more efficient and safer means of travel than limousines for short trips to and from the White House. On July 12, 1957, Eisenhower became the first president to employ the new aviation technology when he rode in a two-passenger Bell H-13J helicopter to Camp David as part of a test of White House evacuation procedures. During his second term, he regularly used helicopters to fly to Camp David and his farm in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. 9. While president, he spent nearly two months in the hospital. During a September 1955 vacation in Colorado, Eisenhower suffered a heart attack and was rushed to Denver’s Fitzsimmons Army Hospital. He remained in the hospital for nearly seven weeks.

His staff took over the hospital’s eighth floor, and with the president’s approval, Vice President Richard Nixon ran cabinet meetings. The following year, Eisenhower underwent an intestinal bypass operation. In spite of his health issues, Eisenhower ran for re-election in 1956 and won in a landslide. Dwight D. Eisenhower revisits Omaha Beach and other actual sites and locales connected with the World War II. (Credit: CBS Photo Archive/Getty Images) 10. William Randolph Hearst offered Eisenhower a job as a journalist. During his years in the military, Eisenhower gained a reputation as an excellent writer. He authored speeches, letters, reports and staff studies for top brass, including Douglas MacArthur, as well as the secretary of war. He contributed to a guidebook on World War I battlefields and was so proficient with the pen that in the 1930s publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst tried to convince Eisenhower to leave the U.S. Army to become a military correspondent for his newspaper chain. Although offered three times his existing pay, Eisenhower turned down Hearst’s offer. Access hundreds of hours of historical video, commercial free, with HISTORY Vault . Start your free trial today.

Tags Camp David, Maryland - definition of Camp David, Maryland by The Free Dictionary Camp David, Maryland - definition of Camp David, Maryland by The Free Dictionary Also found in: Encyclopedia , Wikipedia . Camp David A presidential retreat on Catoctin Mountain in northern Maryland north-northwest of Washington, DC. It was established by Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1942 as Shangri-La. Dwight D. Eisenhower renamed it Camp David in honor of his grandson. Camp David (ˈdeɪvɪd) n (Placename) the US president's retreat in the Appalachian Mountains, Maryland: scene of the Camp David Agreement (Sept, 1978) between Anwar Sadat of Egypt and Menachem Begin of Israel, mediated by Jimmy Carter, which outlined a framework for establishing peace in the Middle East. This agreement was the basis of the peace treaty between Israel and Egypt signed in Washington (March, 1979) Camp` Da′vid U.S. presidential retreat in the Catoctin Mountains, Maryland. ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend: Noun 1.

Camp David - a retreat to the northwest of Washington that is used by the president of the United States Want to thank TFD for its existence? Tell a friend about us , add a link to this page, or visit the webmaster's page for free fun content . Link to this page: Sinai Peninsula References in periodicals archive ? The emirs of Qatar and Kuwait as well as the crown princes of the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Oman, and Saudi Arabia traveled to the US for a meeting with US President Barack Obama at the White House on May 13 and at Camp David, Maryland, on May 14. US, GCC believe Iran nuke deal is in interests of int'l community - Obama Wright, the author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning book "The Looming Tower,'' the story of al-Qaeda's attack on the World Trade Center (which I previously recommended), has written a magnificent account of the Camp David Accords, in which President Jimmy Carter, Israeli leader Menachem Begin and Egyptian leader Anwar Sadat spent 13 days at Camp David, Maryland, negotiating a Middle East peace that earned Sadat and Begin the Nobel Peace Prize.

Camp David | whitehouse.gov Air Force One Camp David To every President since Franklin Roosevelt, Camp David has offered solitude, tranquility, and a place to host foreign leaders. Camp David, known formally as the Naval Support Facility Thurmont, is the President’s country residence. Located in Catoctin Mountain Park in Frederick County, Maryland, Camp David has offered Presidents an opportunity for solitude and tranquility, as well as an ideal place to host foreign leaders. Adapted from the federal employee retreat Hi-Catoctin, President Franklin Roosevelt established the residence as USS Shangri La, modeling the new main lodge after the Roosevelt winter vacation home in Warm Springs, Georgia. President Eisenhower subsequently renamed the institution in honor of his grandson David. Camp David has been used extensively to host foreign dignitaries. Prime Minister Winston Churchill of Great Britain attended the first such meeting in May of 1943; the summit held at the residence in 1978 for Egyptian President Anwar al-Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin resulted in what are now known as the Camp David Accords.

Living near retreat has peaks, valleys - tribunedigital-baltimoresun → War Living near retreat has peaks, valleys Compound: Camp David, which lies in the mountains outside Thurmont, is a source of both pride and concern as America wages war. March 27, 2003|By Jeff Barker | Jeff Barker,SUN STAFF THURMONT -- No signs point to nearby Camp David, and it is not wise to walk up and down Main Street seeking directions to the presidential retreat. Especially not as President Bush huddles there today with British Prime Minister Tony Blair -- a wartime strategy session that, at least temporarily, turns this slow-moving Western Maryland town, population 5,800, into the center of the political universe. "If somebody asks [where it is], we're required to report it to the Secret Service," says James L. Fuss, the otherwise amiable Thurmont police sergeant. But the locals can tell you where the compound is, if they are so inclined. It is a secret most everybody here knows. If that sounds like a paradox, it is but one of many in this mountain community that is both folksy and worldly, anxious and serene.

Camp David is hidden in Catoctin Mountain Park, a 5,810-acre federal property outside Thurmont that boasts nature trails and meadows, screech owls, trout and white-tailed deer. With the arrival of spring bringing the rush of creek waters, it's hard to conceive of a more placid place. And harder still to imagine that -- with Bush and his principal war ally in residence -- it is one of the most heavily secured and technologically wired spots in the world. And potentially one of the most endangered. Clutching her 1-year-old daughter to her chest at a downtown playground, Bobbie Jo Gray says she can't help but focus on the potential peril of living near the compound where President Franklin Delano Roosevelt plotted World War II strategy with British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. Once called Shangri-La, the camp was renamed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower for his grandson. Bush's father used the retreat during the Persian Gulf war in 1991.

For all of her 31 years, Gray has lived in this throwback town with its 100-year-old, stone-and-brick bar and grill, and its barbershop that features a working red-and-white barber pole. She has grown accustomed to the comings and goings of presidents. But lately, the mother of two says the familiar chop of helicopters and drone of circling fighter jets have begun to sound more ominous. "Before, I didn't pay attention to the helicopters," Gray says. "Now, it's scary for your kids. I just try not to think about it, really." Some other residents have had precisely the opposite reaction. "You hear the planes and, to me, it's a good sign because you're being protected to a certain degree," says Marlene Megee, who has lived here for 24 years. Since the war began, many of the city's stores have been festooned with American flags. If anti-war demonstrators are spotted here during Blair's visit, "They would probably be coming in from the cities. They wouldn't be from here," says Town Commissioner Edward G. Hobbs, 47, who owns a downtown hardware store bearing the family name.

The city has generally had good relations with Camp David. The mayor, Martin Burns, is a deputy director at the Pentagon's Marine headquarters who once did a tour of duty at Camp David. The compound wasn't always the fortress it is today. In the 1970s, visitors could ride up a mountain road and see the retreat's fencing, but now the road has been diverted. "They used to land their helicopters in the parks. Now, there is more of a buffer," Hobbs says. Like many in town, Hobbs seems proud to be associated with a place so connected to history. The city, he says, has long managed to bask in the reflected glow of Camp David with little downside. MORE:

Question: What Maryland presidential retreat, previously called Shangri-la, was renamed by Dwight D Eisenhower after his grandson?
Answer: Camp David