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Air Force News

Col. Kevin McNellis, USAF

Our AF Jayhawks are cheering as they turn in their projects and make their last guess on a final - and then it's off to home, Christmas dinner, reunion with family and friends.  I've asked each of them to bring their uniform to wear during services over the Christmas season - not to show off mind you; but to remind our folks about our servicemen overseas who aren't home for the holidays.  And to remember the families who pray and worry for their deployed loved one.

Hopefully, our little rascals find the time to keep in shape too because we do the Physical Fitness Test when the winter semester starts. The "Dark Ages" of January and February promise to be icy and cold - after this prolonged great weather, we're going to get walloped!  Good news - nearly all of our cadets have signed up for the spring semester.  In past years our retention wasn't so good.  So why are they returning now?  Two reasons:  better grades and they're having fun.  In the past, we lost most of our freshmen when they saw that KU graded pretty tough and all those new "freedoms" like class attendance and weekday parties took their toll on semester grades.  As a result, they either didn't come back to KU at all, or they dropped ROTC as taking too much time. Emphasizing grades and balancing ROTC with education requirements has helped our retention. We emphasize that we want smart, fit, responsible cadets - with a great attitude.  Thanks to TROA's leadership, you are seeing our cadets first-hand at the meetings. 

The other part is fun.  We've put 5 high quality graphics and high-speed computers in our "Warroom".  Know what they do down there?  Dogfights.  We're teaching our cadets a ton about flying with realistic simulators and they can go head-to-head with F-15s vs. MiGs or P-51s against Messerschmitts.  We're also getting the cadets a pool table - "applied trigonometric dynamics;" and we're getting them a Mac computer for cadet newsletter publishing.  Fun + Worthwhile = Retention

We're also adding more cadets as the semester starts.  We have scholarship opportunities for smart, fit, and motivated kids that can start in every college year.  Of course we press for engineering and technical majors - but the stipend for all has been raised to $350 a month for seniors and up to $510 a year for books (never enough though).  We also have a lot of walk-ons and we'll offer them scholarship if we see them to be performing well.  For the first time in a decade, Air Force ROTC is meeting its goal in terms of numbers - without sacrificing quality.  (We'd rather be short than stupid!)

We're going to have a Dining In mid-April with KU Athletic Director Dr Bohl joining our cadets for tradition and fun with a talk on leadership.  It's appropriate to show our cadets how leadership manifests itself in many ways and it's worthwhile to use University resources in a team approach to benefit our ROTC cadets who are KU students.  Dr Bohl was in our Air Force too!

Some local good news.  Ottawa School Board approved AF Junior ROTC for the upcoming academic year (starts next fall) and they are ranked #8 in the nation with 53 JROTC startups okayed.  Finally, I was blessed to speak at several elementary schools after Veterans Day.  Thanks to the teachers and principal's support.  This is really a great community.  And our military makes us all proud.

I hope you had a Merry Christmas and wish all of you a Happy New Year, and don't forget to say a prayer for our soldiers, sailors and airmen overseas!

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