The University of North Dakota (UND) could play a pivotal role in helping the United States military solve its pilot shortage, U.S. Sen. John Hoeven (R-ND) said during a May 4 roundtable held on campus in Grand Forks, N.D.
In fact, at UND’s John D. Odegard School of Aerospace Sciences, the Pathways Program partnership between the university and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), as well as a new U.S. Air Force Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) cadet training program, both exemplify innovative methods that should be emulated to train future pilots, said Sen. Hoeven during the discussion.
“UND is one of the top aviation schools in the country, and we want to leverage that expertise to help address our military’s need for well-trained pilots for both manned and unmanned aircraft,” Sen. Hoeven said.
The UND and CBP Pathways Program partnership, for example, provides college students with professional experience, prepares them for careers, and addresses a key Air Force need, said the senator, a member of the U.S. Senate Appropriations Defense Subcommittee.
“This program should serve as a model for our nation’s military and we’re working with UND and the Air Force to establish a similar effort to accelerate pilot training for ROTC cadets so they can start their Air Force flying careers,” he added.
Under the Pathways Program, 15 UND students were selected in 2017 as student pilots and hired by CBP as aviation enforcement trainees, according to a statement from the senator’s office. CBP plans to hire them as full-time pilots after they graduate and have accumulated the required amount of flight hours.
Sen. Hoeven also recently had a provision he sponsored passed by Congress as part of the government’s fiscal year 2018 omnibus spending package to provide $4 million for a program to train Air Force ROTC cadets at flight schools like UND. Under such a program, cadets would make early commitments as Air Force pilots and accumulate flight experience, making themselves more quickly available to fly Air Force missions, according to Sen. Hoeven’s staff.
And on April 25, the Air Force informed Sen. Hoeven that UND had been selected as one of six partner universities for the inaugural Air Force Junior ROTC (JROTC) Flight Academy, a scholarship program designed to develop an interest in aviation among America’s high schoolers, according to the letter from USAF Col. Paul Lips, director of the Air Force JROTC.
This summer, 10 Air Force JROTC students will attend a seven-week flight training school at UND to earn their private pilot licenses, Lips wrote, which also could help the nation deal with its pilot shortage “crisis.”