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Embry-Riddle and America's Military: Marching in Step for More Than 60 Years
From 1941-1945, in places like Arcadia, the Embry-Riddle School of Aviation gave thousands of young aviators like Friedman their first 60 hours of flight training before sending them one step closer to the war in Europe. Other airfields were in Clewiston and Miami and near Lake Okeechobee in Florida and Union City in Tennessee. At some locations, the school provided complete training for bomber and pursuit planes, including combat maneuvers. Embry-Riddle's seaplane base in Miami was one of the few places where U.S. Navy pilots trained. Among those who received seaplane ratings there was Howard Baker Jr., who later became a U.S. senator from Tennessee. The school also trained thousands of aircraft technicians for the war effort in an abandoned five-story hotel in Miami. By the time the war ended in 1945, more than 26,000 men and women from the United States and Great Britain had earned their wings or technical licenses through Embry-Riddle, and the school's safety record had won the praise of every branch of the armed services. Most of the aviators left the service, but others made a career in the military. Friedman flew the famous "Hump" over the Himalayas during the war, then "got into the cruise missile business" before retiring as an Air Force colonel. World War II was only the start of Embry-Riddle's relationship with the military. When the Korean War began, Embry-Riddle was called on again. In a 16-month period during that conflict, the school trained more than 1,500 Air Force recruits in the fundamentals of airplane maintenance, including aerodynamics, electronics, and hydraulics.
On the base and in cyberspaceFollowing the Korean conflict, Embry-Riddle continued providing aviation-related education and training for military personnel. In the mid-1970s, Embry-Riddle, by then an accredited university, opened its first four teaching centers at military bases and began offering its degree programs to servicemen and women who couldn't take classes at campus, which had been relocated from Miami to Daytona Beach.The university positioned most of its Extended Campus centers near military installations with an aviation function. Taking advantage of the opportunity to pursue a degree related to their profession in a nearby location, military personnel enrolled in droves. Of today's more than 150 Extended Campus teaching centers in the United States and Europe, 87 are located on military bases. Shortly after the first teaching centers opened, Embry-Riddle added distance learning as an option to help on-the-go aviators, sailors, and soldiers earn a degree. Today, hundreds of web-based Embry-Riddle classes are in session, attended by students at all hours of the day and night. Distance learning appeals to military people because they can complete their degree regardless of their location or schedule, as long as they have access to the web. "It's like taking courses on campus," says Terry Whittum, director of the distance learning enrollment office. "You communicate with your instructor and fellow students using an online bulletin board at the website set up for that course." Of the approximately 18,000 students who take at least one course per year through the Extended Campus, 52 percent are active-duty military personnel. The programs they most often choose are the bachelor's degree in professional aeronautics and the master's in aeronautical science. The omnipresence of the Extended Campus sites and web-based distance learning allows migratory military people to continue their degree work using either one or both of the delivery options. "One thing the military likes about us is our flexibility in meeting their needs when forces beyond their control intervene," says Leon Flancher, chancellor of the Extended Campus. The university has sent faculty members on deployment to assignments like Bosnia-Herzegovenia and Germany to help students finish their semester on schedule. Flancher estimates that 37,500 military personnel have earned Embry-Riddle degrees through the Extended Campus since its inception.
Financial support availableAbout 2,000 veterans and servicepeople receive GI Bill tuition benefits for taking Embry-Riddle courses, 1,600 through the Extended Campus' teaching centers and distance learning, the remainder on the Daytona Beach and Prescott campuses. Counselors in the university's veterans affairs department advise students on course selections and career choices and monitor their academic progress.The department also helps set the national agenda for veterans education programs through the involvement of director Faith Stellitano, a leader in the National Association of Veterans Program Administrators, which advises Congress on legislation. In 1994, S. Harry Robertson, president and CEO of Robertson Research Group and a university trustee, established scholarships named for Embry-Riddle alumni Raymond Frank and Clifton Wolcott, U.S. Army Blackhawk helicopter pilots killed in 1993 in Somalia. "I knew those guys well," says Robertson, whose company makes the fuel systems for special operations aircraft. "I thought the least I could do was set up scholarships in their name for their comrades" in the Army's elite 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment. The scholarships pay for tuition for active-duty members who wish to receive their education from Embry-Riddle. So far, 556 scholarships totaling $68,171 have been awarded to 301 individuals.
Online partnerships with Army and NavyIn late 2000, Embry-Riddle combined its resources with those of the Army and Navy in two alliances that greatly expand the educational opportunities available to military personnel through distance learning technology.In the partnership with the Army, known as eArmyU, once soldiers have signed up at one of nine bases that offer entry into the program, they can continue taking online classes wherever they go in the world. Although 23 educational institutions are taking part in eArmyU, Embry-Riddle and five other schools have captured 89 percent of the enrollments. "General studies and business are the most popular programs in eArmyU," Whittum explains. "Our degree offerings, however, appeal to a very specialized population." Approximately 350 sailors are enrolled in Embry-Riddle through the Navy College Rating Program, which involves 16 colleges and universities. The partnership gives sailors greater access to degree programs that qualify them for specific jobs, called ratings, and makes maximum use of military professional training and experience to fulfill degree requirements. Bob Friedmann marvels at how little the town of Arcadia has changed in the past 60 years and at how much the school that taught him to fly there has evolved. Despite Embry-Riddle's phenomenal growth, though, he knows that the university's longstanding commitment to educating America's military remains unchanged. "I have real fond memories of Embry-Riddle," Friedman says. At Embry-Riddle, many would respond, the feeling is mutual. -- Robert Ross
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