The Army Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) branch at UW-Whitewater brought in a Blackhawk helicopter on the campus’ intramural fields on Tuesday, Oct. 29, with students and community members joining to see the military aircraft.
The Army ROTC held the event to bring more awareness to their program, awareness to the Wisconsin Army National Guard and the return of UW-Whitewater alum and Wisconsin Army National Guard Capt. Meredith L. Porter.
Porter was part of the UW-Whitewater women’s track and field team from 2013 through 2017. She returned to campus to help bring awareness to the Army ROTC program and to connect with current and former members of UW-Whitewater’s track team.
“What we’re doing here is called a static display,” Porter said. “It’s an opportunity for the community to come out and touch the aircraft, sit in the cockpit and to talk to our crew members because we also live around here.”
Porter joined the Army ROTC programs after she became friends with members of the Wisconsin Army National Guard during her time as a Whitewater student. After college, she became an officer and pilot for the military.
As part of the National Guard, it is not all about fighting. She has taken a helicopter to help fight wildfires in the Sierra Nevada mountains in California in 2021. That said, she and her fellow soldiers are Wisconsinites.
“We are truly Wisconsin locals,” Porter said.
UW-Whitewater students were amazed and joyful at the sight of the military aircraft. With many sitting inside the cockpit and passenger seat inside the aircraft, many took photos of themselves or parents took pictures of their kids inside the aircraft.
“It’s something that can bring us closer to our men and women in arms,” UW-W senior Caleb Sanner said.
This event was joined by other soldiers in the Army and a UW-Whitewater at Rock County alum, Spc. George Smith who graduated from the Rock campus in 2022. He was also happy to be back to support his fellow soldiers as he completes his mechanical engineering degree at UW-Platteville.
Sgt. First Class Amy Cantley, one of the campus’ ROTC instructors, was happy to bring Porter back on campus and bring more awareness to the Wisconsin Army National Guard and the ROTC program on the Whitewater campus.
“We do pay college tuition to any college student who joins the program, and we want to show what we have to offer the community,” Cantley said.
The ROTC program plans to do a similar event in the spring semester of 2025. Their main goal is to help civilians and current military personnel attend college while also meeting the requirement to become an officer of the United States military, even if it takes landing a helicopter in the middle of a field on campus.
