BALTIMORE — The Defense Department ordered the National Guard Bureau federal agency last week to permanently close three Guard-run camps for at-risk teens, among them the Maryland National Guard Freestate Challenge Academy, to boost national defense spending, a bureau spokesperson said in an email to The Baltimore Sun.

Citing national defense costs and failed facility inspections, the Defense Department ordered shut camps in Maryland, North Carolina and Hawaii. Indiana and South Carolina independently decided to close their Challenge programs, a National Guard Bureau spokesperson said in an email.

“Decisions regarding funding levels for the National Guard Youth ChalleNGe Program rest with the Department of War as it weighs budget priorities required to meet national defense needs,” the spokesperson told The Baltimore Sun.

“Factors examined as part of the decision-making process included a history of unsatisfactory inspections, failure to meet graduation goals, and whether a state’s candidates had an alternative Challenge program available to them,” the spokesperson said.

“As the Freestate ChalleNGe Academy closes its doors due to federal funding cuts, we recognize the meaningful impact the academy had during its time in our state — providing structure, mentorship, and guidance to young people across Maryland,” Gov. Wes Moore said in an emailed statement to The Sun.

Former attendees and staff members took to social media to express their dismay.

“This program saved my life and the lives of a lot of other men and women who came through it,” a person identified as George Everette posted on Facebook. “The Commander and Cadre who ran this program were the light at the end of a very dark long tunnel for some of us.

“Jesus, please fix this!” He wrote in all-caps, ending with seven exclamation points.

When asked what the federal monies would be reallocated to, the Bureau referred The Sun to the Office of the Secretary of War, which did not respond to questions by publication.

The finance-driven closures come as the U.S. finances a costly war on Iran, which has killed more than 1,900 and resulted in the country closing a major shipping artery, the Strait of Hormuz, driving import and gasoline prices up at home. The Trump Administration announced a two-week ceasefire Tuesday.

The Center for Strategic and International Studies, a bipartisan, nonprofit policy research organization, reported in early March that the war alone had cost the U.S. upwards of $1 billion a day over the first 11 days — largely from the cost of munitions, followed by infrastructure damage.

Including Maryland, two of the three academies closed had seen significant cadet or facility issues in recent years. In 2020, a teen died at North Carolina’s New London campus, which was ordered closed. Maryland’s program, Freestate, had failed its most recent facilities inspections in 2024 and 2025, and would require significant remodeling to either its Aberdeen Proving Ground South facilities, or its temporary Camp Fretterd facilities, in order to get them in shape.

Inadequate facilities, poor staffing

Freestate shut its doors and shipped teen cadets off to neighboring programs in August 2025, after temporary facilities it had moved cadets to following a sewage pipe break at its permanent location were deemed unsafe and insufficient by the National Guard Bureau, according to a federal memo summarizing a site inspection, reviewed by The Sun.

It recommended improving staffing levels, qualifications and training, bettering core components of the program and fixing and updating facilities.

Freestate had housed the teens enrolled in its program in facilities that were neither safe nor healthy, a memo dated Aug. 14, 2025, by the chief of National Guard Bureau Youth Programs, Jeffrey M. White said. According to the memo, the program had received an unsatisfactory rating in October 2024 and was required to submit its corrective action plan, with a suspense date of Aug. 15, 2025, if remedies were not sufficient.

However, in an Aug. 6 report, days before the deadline, the program reported a July 2 sewage leak in a building at its permanent site on Aberdeen Proving Ground South. By July 20, Freestate had relocated operations to Camp Fretterd Military Reservation in Reisterstown, where, the memo says, the program failed — or was projected to fail — on 14 out of 20 points of inquiry, including building conditions, quality of education, number, training and credentialing of staff, and safety of minors while sleeping.

White observed that buildings and staffing ratios were also insufficient.

“Program facilities remain unsuitable for program operations,” White wrote in the memo. “Since the last inspection, the conditions at Freestate Challenge Academy have not improved.

“The director stated that the program cannot meet the required staffing ratios due to a hiring freeze,” White added. “The program must either comply with policy and procedural requirements for reductions to staffing ratios or submit a realistic budget request based on its capabilities.

“In summary, senior leadership may benefit from coordination with the national training committee and NGB-J1-Y staff to establish best practices to mitigate the risks discussed in this memorandum,” he said in the memo.

Investigations in 2025 and 2026 by The Sun found that from 2019-2025, teens routinely suffered violence and abuse at the camp, while others were subject to sexual abuse, and revealed evidence of insufficient staff training. Some cadets said they were afraid of the other teens in the program, and that staff didn’t do enough to keep them safe.

The state, in response to a lawsuit, claims that two staffers, since fired, coordinated fights between cadets and sometimes themselves in an after-hours “fight club.”

While the camp repeatedly dismissed staff who were violent with the teens, each year, more staff punched, slapped, screamed at and humiliated the teens — or encouraged them to hurt one another, records showed.

Social media outcry

But many who attended the program cite it as turning their lives around. After The Sun reported Freestate’s closure, former staff members and cadets — the program term for teens who attended the program — mourned the program’s death on social media.

“This is honestly insane to see,” a commenter identified as Mark Hunter wrote on a Facebook post. “Programs like this actually make a real difference. I worked at [D.C.-based Capital Guardian Youth Challenge Academy] from 2017–2019 before we deployed, and it was one of the most impactful things I’ve been part of. Being able to mentor those kids and watch them turn their lives around was powerful.

“A lot of them went on to join the military, build discipline, and create a better path for themselves. This wasn’t just a program; it was a second chance for many.

“Shutting something like this down feels like we’re losing a solution that was actually working.”

Another commenter, identified as Mark Wright, chimed in. “I worked with this program for several years as Cadre guiding mentoring and molding our young troubled youths,” he wrote. “It was a very impactful program in the 1990’s. More successful than failures and alot of changed youths that made them better citizens.”

The state, which is required to provide 25% of the program’s funding, set aside half a million dollars for its operating costs in Fiscal Year 2027. The Defense Department would have been on the hook for the rest of the operating costs, which could have reached $1.5 million.

“The withdrawal of the 75 percent federal funding match will bring to an end the Freestate Challenge Academy,” said Maj. Gen. Janeen L. Birckhead, the adjutant general for Maryland, in a statement Friday.

“The Maryland National Guard is proud of the lasting impact the Freestate Challenge Academy has had.”

It is unclear where the state funds allocated to Freestate will go.

The Freestate Challenge Academy is one of the oldest in the U.S. and has served more than 5,000 at-risk and troubled Maryland teens in more than 30 years of operation.

The federal program was launched in 1993, two years after the Joint Armed Services Committee directed the National Guard to develop a program that would train and educate young people, particularly high school dropouts, while incorporating the same structure provided in the military.

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