SKIES TAKING TO THE

Picture it.

You’re a professor at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and a distraught student walks up and says, “I can’t afford college anymore. I have to drop out.”

You feel terrible for the student and are not sure what to say. Then you remember an on-campus luncheon you attended a few months ago.

There, you heard about the Flight Educator Program as you chatted with cadets in the Tennessee National Guard. What you learned gives you an idea for the student.

“Have you thought about the National Guard? They pay for your school. Maybe this is an option for you.”

That’s one of the reasons Military Science Instructor Jacqueline Hogan reactivated the Flight Educator Program in April 2022, several years after it was last held.

“It’s designed to allow the staff, the faculty, the administrators, the chance to participate in something that an ROTC cadet would participate in the future,” says Hogan.

One of those possible futures is joining the

National Guard and getting tuition paid in full.

“So, if you have a student in your class or that you know looking for opportunities to get their tuition covered or to serve in the military in whatever capacity, here’s one option for them,” says Hogan, who has served in the National

Guard for eight years and attained the rank of staff sergeant.

For many, the idea of being in the National Guard means that once you sign on the dotted line, you’re immediately shipped off to boot camp.

“They think military. They think, ‘Well, I have to go away.’ They don’t realize that the National Guard offers a program here on campus where they don’t even have to attend basic combat training,” she says. “They use the ROTC as their training, so they never have to miss any school, so it’s a huge benefit for those who don’t want to take any time off from school.

“For those who do want to take time off, the National Guard also offers the enlisted route to go through the basic combat training and come back to school.”

During the Flight Instructor Program luncheon earlier this year, an additional enticement was added. A convoy of loud, imposing and impressive Black Hawk helicopters landed on Chamberlain Field. Students, staff and faculty had the chance to climb onboard and take a 10-minute flight around Chattanooga with members of the National Guard.

“They got a chance to speak with the pilots and the crew chiefs and the medics or whoever might be a part of the crew that day,” Hogan explains.

“In their future endeavors, they might think, ‘Hey, I might want to be in branch aviation’ or ‘I might want to become a pilot at some point in my life.’ They got the opportunity to have those conversations.”

Don’t forget another piece of bait.

“There’s nothing like bringing a Black Hawk helicopter to land that really gives people’s attention and gets them excited about the military,” Hogan says.