Spring Break
Flying high
Air Force ROTC cadets received flight instruction and flew small planes. Many of the cadets will try for pilot positions in the Air Force.
By: Michael Sullivan
Issue date: 11/10/08 Section: News
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Recruiting officer Cadet Kenneth Bell said that during lead lab, upperclassmen take the freshmen and sophomores out to take part in activities such as shooting M-16s, learning how to march Air Force style and obstacle courses. This gives the upperclassmen a chance to lead and underclassmen a chance to receive valuable training which will help prepare them to become leaders in the United States Air Force.
"This week for lead lab, the upperclassmen planned to take the underclassmen on familiarization flights in small, one-engine planes where they received free lessons along with an opportunity to get behind the 'wheel' and see if they wanted to compete for a pilot slot in the Air Force," Bell said.
The junior political science major is cadet recruiting officer for the A&M Air Force ROTC Detachment and a member of Corps outfit Squadron 2, known as "Gator 2."
Before going up the underclassmen went through a ground training, where they learned the basic aerodynamics of flight along with navigation and flight patterns they needed to know before taking off of the ground.
Bell, along with Cadet Wing Cmdr. Jay Bateman of Squadron 3, are in charge of recruiting and motivating their cadets to join the Air Force. Capt. Carl Ivey, assistant professor of aerospace studies, said that Bell and Bateman have really taken the Air Force side of the Corps up a notch by reaching out to cadets and putting Air Force spirit into them.
"These guys make sure that there is an objective to everything, and the objective today is to motivate them for the lifestyle of the flight line, and we thought, what better way to do that than to put the underclassmen into an actual airplane and show them how to fly," Ivey said.
Bateman explained that flying a plane is almost the exact opposite of a car, where handling the 'wheel' controls the speed as you push back and forth, and the right and left pedals control the direction of the plane or yaw.
"The Air Force remains a selective organization. Students apply for pilot slots, which are national competitions for cadets competing for the opportunity to go to pilot training," Bateman said. "I received my slot but at my four day physical, which everyone has to do, I found out that I have color deficiency so I couldn't be a pilot."
Although Bateman will not enter pilot training upon commissioning, he said that it doesn't matter what his career field is, just being able to serve his country is enough. Bateman said that he decided to enter a career in the Air Force as a security forces officer and he is now competing for a highly sought-after OSI slot, which is similar to the FBI, but for the military.
"The special agent in the recent movie 'Eagle Eye' happened to be an OSI agent," Bell said.
"That's really the reason I'm here, there are so many things we get for living in this country that I feel the need to give back and maybe the way I choose is not the most popular but it's to serve in my nation's military and protect everyone else. We don't have a draft in this country because there's people like these cadets who volunteer," Bateman said.
Bell and Bateman are full scholarship cadets. Bateman is awaiting graduation to commission into the Air Force as an officer, while Bell, in his junior year, awaits an answer to whether or not he will be able to become a pilot. He says that this career categorization will not be received until after Winter Break.
"There are lots of scholarship opportunities in the Corps of Cadets. There are around 2,000 cadets the Corps, and about 450 are Air Force ROTC cadets," Bell said. "Many of these students will be commissioning as officers into the Air Force at the time of their graduation, some of these will become pilots."
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