By Delaney Whittet
Sports Editor
Senior Jack Gibbons will be flying straight into the Navy Reserve Officers’ corps, or the ROTC program, at Tulane University in New Orleans in the fall of 2016.
ROTC is a program that pays students’ college tuition if they join the military after receiving their education. Gibbons chose to go to Tulane because 100 percent of the pilots who qualify through their grade point average and score on a written test are service selected to be pilots, which means that the Navy chooses their position in their sophomore year of college, Gibbons said.
Gibbons has wanted to fly planes since he was six years old. He decided that he wanted to go into the military his sophomore year when his uncle, a former Air Force pilot, convinced him to look into the ROTC program.
“It’s definitely special to be following in my uncle’s footsteps,” Gibbons said. “He has been a huge help with getting through the application process, and I hope to continue his legacy.”
In addition to the regular college courses that Gibbons will be taking, he will have workouts with the ROTC on Wednesdays and classes pertaining to the Navy on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
“The extra commitments for ROTC are not too bad, and I will still have time to join other clubs and organizations,” Gibbons said. “I’m excited to be able to have a college experience and pursue flying when I graduate.”
After graduating from Tulane, Gibbons hopes to attend flight school and complete his eight-year service requirement in the military. He then hopes to become a pilot for a commercial airline soon after he services in the military because greater seniority allows pilots to fly more frequently and for longer distances, resulting in higher pay, Gibbons said.
“Our family is incredibly proud of Jack, and I’m so happy for him because this is something he really wants to do and worked so hard to get,” Gibbon’s mother, Kathleen Gibbons, said. “There are so many benefits such as learning what it means to serve his country.”
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