Kaine gets close-up look at local training

U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine visited the Fredericksburg area Monday to take in two important learning opportunities: a new Asymmetric Warfare Training Center at Fort A.P. Hill and a dual-enrollment program for high school students at Germanna Community College.

Lt. Col. Pete Dargle, the commander of the Army post in Caroline County, led a tour for Kaine and members of the Military Affairs Council of the Fredericksburg Chamber of Commerce.

The $96 million Asymmetric Warfare Training Center, which opened in January, is a mini-city that is used to help troops find quick solutions to ever-evolving threats in an age of global insurgency. It includes buildings simulated to be a church, mosque, embassy, apartment complex, bank, emergency services center—even a subway station complete with real D.C. Metro cars.

Kaine noted the importance of the Fort A.P. Hill, which trains about 90,000 military personnel each year. Kaine’s son is an infantry officer stationed at Quantico and trained at the Caroline post.

“It’s a very important training facility,” Kaine said. “To make 70,000 acres so close [to Washington] for training, they don’t build them like that anymore.”

The visit was part of the senator’s effort to tour every military installation in Virginia. He visited the Naval Surface Warfare Center, Dahlgren Division in King George County last year.

The second stop at A.P. Hill was at Range 33, where members of the Virginia Army National Guard were training. Kaine met a commander who told him that he had a team training at the installation for two weeks on different weapon systems.

The commander showed the group an automatic grenade launcher and a range where troops can train to shoot at distances between 200 and 1,800 meters.

Later in the day, Kaine hosted a roundtable at Germanna with local educators and students.

Kaine recently co-sponsored a bill that would provide federal money for dual-enrollment programs, which enable high schoolers to receive college credits.

Germanna, which currently offers classes to about 1,200 such students, this fall is starting a program that will enable some Culpeper County students to graduate high school with associate degrees.

Brett Leake, a rising junior at Culpeper’s Eastern View High School, will participate in that Germanna Scholars Program at the school’s Daniel Technology Center in Culpeper.

Leake, who was part of the roundtable discussion, told Kaine the program will not only save him money, but improve his chances to get into college.

“Other schools will look at you and [think], ‘Hey, this kid took the extra motivation to take these extra-hard classes and get ahead, so let’s pick him over someone else,’” Leake said.

Kaine said the bill he co-sponsored would include money for high school teachers to become credentialed dual-enrollment instructors.

“Instead of taking the kids to the community colleges for the dual enrollment, have them take the dual-enrollment courses right where they are, which is better for transportation and scheduling issues,” Kaine said in an interview.

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