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United States Coast Guard Academy - They've Got Learning Locked Down

New London — The U.S. Coast Guard Academy now has a secure classroom for cadets to view classified materials and discuss national security topics with guest speakers.

For security reasons, academy officials could not say what makes the secure classroom secure.

But they did say that the school is the first military service academy, and possibly the first undergraduate institution, to have a classroom of this kind in the United States. It was dedicated in November, but it will be used for the first time this semester.

"I do think we're leading the way in this area," said Rear Adm. J. Scott Burhoe, academy superintendent. "It allows us as an institution to be even that much more relevant because we're connected with the things that are actually happening in the operational Coast Guard."

Second-class, or junior, cadets are eligible to receive secret clearances but the school had no way for them to use classified materials in their classroom studies in the past.

The classroom in Smith Hall, an academic building on the campus, looks like a normal computer lab but it uses a limited-access computer network that can transmit classified information, known as a SIPRNet, or Secret Internet Protocol Router Network, according to available online sources.

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