NIU ROTC students travel in style – a Black Hawk helicopter

DeKALB – Elijah and Owen Botts bounced up and down in their double stroller Friday afternoon as the helicopter loomed in the sky above them. And they didn't stop as the massive UH-60 Black Hawk hovered briefly above them, then quickly descended onto the grassy field in front of them.

The boys – Elijah is 1; Owen is 3 – were among the dozens of military officials and local residents on a lacrosse field north of the Convocation Center on the campus of Northern Illinois University on Friday checking out three Black Hawk helicopters that had landed on campus around noon.

The helicopters were on campus to take students in the school's Reserve Officers' Training Corps to training. The three coasted onto the fields shortly after noon Friday, cruising over the Convocation Center from the south and landing in a straight line.

Cadets were scheduled to get to the helicopters about 2 p.m. to learn how to get on and off of the helicopters, then leave about 3 p.m. for Marseilles in central Illinois for a weekend of training. About 85 students were going, with 15 of them seniors who planned the training and the remainder juniors who would be doing the training.

Using the Black Hawks, which were stationed in Chicago and flown by members of the Illinois National Guard, was done in part to generate enthusiasm, said Major William Stanley of the NIU ROTC program.

Cadets interested in pursuing a military career through the ROTC program can choose from a number of specialties, Stanley said. One of those is aviation, he said, and exposure to the aircraft the military uses could spark an interest in one of the cadets.

"We expose cadets to some of the different things they can do in the army," Cadet Stefan Goray said. "For some cadets, this might be an inspiration to them."

Goray, a senior at NIU in the ROTC program who serves as the group's public relations liaison, said two trips would have to be made to get all of the cadets to Marseilles.

But before the cadets were even on the field, the pilots did a goodwill flight with eight NIU staff members.

The eight were escorted to the first helicopter in line, taught how to get in and out properly, then strapped in for a tour of DeKalb via the sky.

Shirley Richmond, dean of the College of Health and Human Sciences, was one of the eight NIU staff members on the flight.

She said they flew around DeKalb with the doors of the helicopter open, giving them a good view of campus and the construction of the new DeKalb High School on Dresser Road.

The ROTC program is in the College of Health and Human Sciences, and Richmond said she appreciated that the military agreed to transport the cadets to training.

"It's excellent experience for them to have this opportunity," Richmond said. "It makes it real life to them."

While the one Black Hawk was giving the tour, the other two remained on the ground for onlookers to examine. Owen Botts, for instance, got to sit in the front of one of the helicopters. He and his brother came with their father, Bob Botts, who works in the bursars office at NIU, and their mother, Liz.

"It's a great opportunity," Bob Botts said when asked why they came out. "It's something you don't ever really get to experience."

The cadets are scheduled to arrive in DeKalb on Sunday, but they will be brought to the DeKalb Taylor Municipal Airport instead of campus, Stanley said.