On Friday, August 26th  the Cadets of the NJROTC unit traveled to Mobile, Alabama, and spent the night on board the USS Alabama (BB-60), a WWII era Battleship. While there, the cadets also visited the USS Drum as well as the Aircraft pavilion. The Cadets were able to walk the decks of the ships, allowing the students to experience how the ship’s crew lived, worked and survived. On Saturday August 27th the cadets traveled to Naval Air Station Pensacola to visit the Naval Aviation Museum of History.
This trip allowed the cadets to see the complete history of Naval Aviation dating back to the first flight of the Wright brothers. The museum had hundreds of aircraft displays that included aircraft dating from World War I to aircraft currently used by the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps. The Cadets also had the opportunity to fly flight simulators that allowed them to see and feel what it is like to fly a Fighter Jet Aircraft. These simulators were able to perform flight maneuvers such as loops, barrel rolls, and steep dives and climbs while the Cadets sat inside them and controlled the simulator throttles and control stick.
The final event at the museum was an IMAX movie called “The Thrill of Flight,†which is a movie about the history of aviation and the U.S. Navy Blue Angels Flight Demonstration Team. This movie gave the viewer the artificial feeling that he was flying different types of aircraft very low over the ground and at very high airspeeds. The Cadets who were fortunate enough to travel on this trip all agree that they learned a lot about Naval Battleships and Naval Aviation.Â
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