At one point, a Guardsman jokingly told Olympus High student Ralph Gochnour that he wanted to cut the 17-year-old student's long, wavy locks. Gochnour, who is co-president of WAMO (Women and Men of Olympus) and carries a 3.65 GPA, admits his appearance can be a little deceiving.

"When I want to, I can get stuff done," he said.

For one week, Gochnour and others are learning how high-ranking soldiers and guest speakers like former senator and astronaut Jake Garn get things done.

Garn said Tuesday that he hopes the academy's participants will take something from his story of how a kid from small-town Richfield could grow up to orbit Earth 109 times. The point he emphasized to the students: education.

"I really like to encourage them to keep going," Garn said after his speech.

On the down side, academy director Maj. David Osborne said that less than half of the more than 100 Utah high schools encouraged to send delegates actually do so. As to why, Osborne could only speculate that some of the larger schools have too much going on.

Lt. Col. Matt Price said some students arrive at camp expecting an attempt to recruit them into the military. The point, he said, is for students to realize that soldiers are really just their next-door neighbors.

Even more, Price wants the students to promote in their schools all of the aspects of freedom they're exposed to during their week at Camp Williams.

"And that is so unusual for a high school student," Price said. "It's so nice to see."

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E-mail: sspeckman@desnews.com