Source: Lt. Col. Edward Meyer, 785-532-6600, edmeyer1@k-state.edu
News release prepared by: Calin Cooney, 785-532-2535, media@k-state.edu

Friday, April 22, 2011

WILDCAT WARRIORS: AIR FORCE ROTC CADETS EARN SPOT IN SELECT TRAINING PROGRAM

MANHATTAN -- Seventeen months of training and preparation has paid off for 12 Kansas State University Air Force ROTC cadets with their selection for a special U.S. Air Force training program.

The K-State students, from both the Manhattan and Salina campuses, were chosen from among 3,338 college sophomores nationwide to attend the Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps' one-month field training summer program. The selection board was at Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama. The board chose 1,994 students from 144 different Air Force ROTC detachments to attend the summer training.

The program is a demanding, 28-day leadership course and a prerequisite before any cadet may enter the Professional Officer Course to be commissioned a second lieutenant in the Air Force. The course is conducted with two weeks each in Montgomery, Ala., and Hattiesburg, Miss. During this training, cadets are challenged mentally and physically to demonstrate their leadership, followership, communications, self-discipline, physical fitness and teamwork talents.

K-State's Wildcat Warrior AFROTC cadet wing had a 60-percent selection rate for the training program. Cadets, all sophomores, selected to attend include:

Brycen Scholz, professional pilot, Atchison; Mark Bohme, mechanical engineering, Atwood; Eric Budy, mechanical engineering, Basehor; Scott Mall, professional pilot, Clay Center; Austen Mundell, history, Haysville; Jessica Zillinger, agricultural economics, Logan; Patrick Rourke, criminology, Manhattan; Quincy Whitham, geography, Moscow; Timothy Maresh, construction science and management, Nekoma; Tanner Heaton, marketing, Salina; and David Mears, political science, Shawnee.

From out of state: David Hebing, interdisciplinary studies, Montgomery, Ala.