They sing the national anthem, learn to handle weapons and march in uniform: Instead of lying in the sun, many American students spend their free time with drill and lesson. Photographer Sarah Blesener has traveled the US for six months and has visited twelve military training camps for children and adolescents.

Two years ago, Blesener photographed similar programs in Russia - many in the United States then criticized these camps, calling them nationalist. "There is something very similar here, too," says the photographer. She decided to return to the US to document patriotic and military education.

Blesener drove through twelve US states - from Pennsylvania via Minnesota to New Jersey. The selected camps, which involve students from five to eighteen, range from young marines to survival camps to the training of future border guards.

Every year about half a million American children and adolescents are taught here: in patriotic camps, which aim to promote love of America and to convey knowledge about the country's religious values; in military camps where participants learn discipline and receive physical education; or in survival schools where they learn how to build emergency shelters or what to do in a natural disaster.

Do you do that voluntarily?

In addition, the photographer visited some participants at home, including a young girl from Nebraska, which recently joined the army at the age of 17. Blesener wanted to concentrate in this second part of the project on the young people, their private lives and personal environment.

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Patriotic and ready to defend: Military youth camps in the USA

Some of the programs take place on weekends, others once a week after school, for some students have to sacrifice their entire summer vacations. Do you do that voluntarily? Only a few, according to Blesener, are being urged by their parents - most of them want to participate of their own accord.

The motivation of the students is very different: They want to prepare for their future military career, to follow in the footsteps of their parents. They enjoy shooting, they enjoy the sense of community or want to get the university funded by the organizations.

Many of the youth camps are privately managed and funded, run by former or current military personnel. Everyone would deny that they are recruiting camps. "But of course they are," says Blesener. "Getting a child into an activity or belief at such a young age is clearly a way to steer it in that direction."