Camp Cadet book recalls training experiences
Two men there at the beginning 50 years ago have collaborated on a book about Camp Cadet in Butler.
Evan K. Slaughenhoupt Jr., who was a counselor at the first camp in 1970, worked with former state trooper and founder Al Vish to write “Camp Cadet,” a history of the institution that started in Butler County and spread across Pennsylvania and to other states.
Camp Cadet is a summer camp put on by state police troops throughout Pennsylvania. The first camp began in Butler 50 years ago and was the brainchild of Troop D Trooper Vish.
Vish, 78, of Greensburg said, “It was always my hope to write a book about Camp Cadet some day.
“Evan took the project on himself. We talked daily on the phone,” he said.
Slaughenhoupt said he and Vish reconnected in 2012.
In 2018, when Slaughenhoupt retired and moved to Florida, he began writing a family history. This led him to begin working with Vish on the camp's history.
Slaughenhoupt said, “We collaborated by phone. We worked out an outline and then began to fill it in.
“I would draft something and send to him and he would go through it and send it back,” he said.
Slaughenhoupt said a three-hour oral history that Vish taped for an oral history of the Pennsylvania State Police proved invaluable.
He said he had a draft of the book finished just before Easter and began looking for a publisher.Christian Faith Publishing in Meadville decided to publish it. That's when Slaughenhoupt said the lengthy process of editing and page design began.The book was published this fall and is available from Amazon, Barnes and Noble and Books-A-Million.“The object of the camp was to change the image of law enforcement,” said Vish, who in 1970 was the community relations officer at the Butler barracks. “It was to show campers we have families just like them, to show them the other side of law enforcement.”The six-day-long camp, similar to the state police academy in Hershey, took boys and girls between the ages of 12 and 15 and gave them an experience that included physical training classes on traffic safety and first aid, and lectures on subjects such as crime-scene analysis and fingerprinting from visiting experts such as FBI agents.The camp wasn't just staffed by state troopers, but by various municipal officers too.Slaughenhoupt, who grew up in Parker, was at the first camp at Camp Lutherlyn as a counselor, being too old to be a camper.“I wanted to be a Pennsylvania state trooper, but with my eyesight and height, this was as close as I could be to law enforcement,” Slaughenhoupt said.Today, the Pennsylvania State Police hosts camps across the state. In addition, it has added a Commissioner's Honor Camp, which is at the State Police Academy in Hershey.Thousands have attended Camp Cadet to have positive and meaningful interactions with law enforcement during the past 50 years, giving their time and talents to make the camp a success.Vish's efforts have been marked with a plaque at the state police academy in Hershey and another in the lobby of Troop D Butler barracks.
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