Classroom in the skies

  Friday, April 1, 2016 2:00 AM
  News

Pittsburg, KS

More than 40 Pittsburg State University Army students gathered in a field for class, Friday, and the classroom came to them.

The students, all R.O.T.C. cadets in Pitt State’s Gorilla Battalion, boarded two Army CH-47 Chinook helicopters that flew in to take them to the Fort Chaffee, Ark., Maneuver Training Center for a weekend of training.

At Fort Chaffee, the PSU cadets, members of Pitt State’s Gorilla Battalion, will join about 100 other cadets from Missouri State University and the University of Central Missouri for a Combined Leadership Development Exercise. Over the weekend, the cadets will receive training in army aviation and medical evacuation operations (MEDEVAC), field artillery weapons capabilities, marksmanship, small unit tactical leadership and field craft.

LTC Kenneth Hutchison, chair of the Department of Military Science, said the flight and weekend training is the culmination of a semester’s worth of learning for the cadets.