Written by Nalea Rivera (AFJROTC Public Affairs Officer)
Three Battle Ground High School students have been selected among a field of over 250 applicants for the Air Force Chief of Staff Flight Academy. The intense eight-week summer experience is part of the Air Force Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps program and it is offered each year to students from over 850 AFJROTC units around the world. This year, there were just 94 cadets selected. Only three of them were from Washington state, and all three are from Battle Ground! Nathan Davis, Lord King Nana-Badu-Weah and Henry Richards were competitively selected from among the candidates to attend flight training at one of the seven university-based programs in the nation. The trio is slated to attend Purdue University in Indiana beginning in mid-June.
These three cadets have some things to say about their opportunity. Said Henry Richards, “I am so grateful for this once in a lifetime opportunity. I have my instructors, Lord King, Nathan and my beloved family to thank for pushing me to pursue something bigger than myself.”
“The thing I’m most excited about going to flight academy is learning how not only to fly a plane, but also how a plane works. I’m also really glad I’m going with some of my friends, Lord King and Henry," said Nathan.
And finally, this is what Lord King had to say: “I am really excited for this opportunity because we put in a lot of hard work. For four months we were in the dark not knowing if this whole thing was even going to happen, but we still kept working every day, and all three of us are going to Purdue for our flight academy.”
Each will complete a rigorous ground school course as well as at least 50 hours of flight in pursuit of an FAA private pilot’s license. The average number of flight hours required to earn a Private Pilot Certificate in the U.S. is 70-80, but cadets in the Flight Academy are typically averaging 50 hours due to the quality and intensity of their studies. While at the summer flight academy, their entire attention is on the tasks linked to flight.
The Air Force is investing $2.8 million to teach 94 of its AFJROTC cadets how to fly, and yet there is no obligation to serve the military after high school or pay any of the tuition back. Battle Ground High School has had 14 students selected for this program since it began in 2018. The application process requires an intensive aviation knowledge exam, endorsements from teachers and counselors, an essay on the motivation to pursue flight and a physical fitness assessment.
"This is a tremendous opportunity for high school students and we are very proud of all the cadets who competed for this coveted scholarship," said Lieutenant Colonel (ret.) Andy Woodrow, senior aerospace science instructor at Battle Ground High School. "This is the first step in discovering flight and possibly making a positive impact on the overall national crisis of pilot shortages in the military and civil aviation. The program is designed to select cadets who are potentially interested in an aviation career and expose them to flying operations as well as programs and infrastructures around aviation."
Pictured above from left: Cadet Nathan Davis, Cadet Lord King Nana-Badu-Weah and Cadet Henry Richardson