Hanover High School student Thomas Chew, at right, with fellow Flight Academy participants (Photo courtesy Naval STEM)
“The sky’s the limit” is a phrase often used to inspire someone to reach beyond what they think might be possible. That idiom recently became real for three Richmond-area teenagers who were accepted to the Navy and Marine Corps Flight Academy at Delaware State University, a summer program designed to give Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps participants the chance to earn a private pilot’s license, with the U.S. Navy picking up the tab.
During the intensive program from June 9-Aug. 2, Thomas Chew — now a senior at Hanover High School — and Ananda Hamlin — a J.R. Tucker High School graduate who is now a freshman at Virginia State University — spent eight hours daily in lessons on the ground and in the air. Outside class, they reviewed their lessons and got to know their classmates from around the country. (The third local student for 2024, also from Hanover, declined to be interviewed for this article.)
The academy was developed to introduce students to flying and, perhaps, attract them to future military careers. “It’s such an expensive process to see if you’re even interested [in being a pilot],” says Capt. Tamara Graham, deputy director of the Flight Academy program and a retired Navy pilot. “It can seem like an unattainable thing.”
Participants in the 2024 Flight Academy at Delaware State University (Photo courtesy Ananda Hamlin)
Sponsored by the Department of the Navy, the academy is a program of the Naval STEM initiative and has an estimated value of $27,000 for participants, who pay nothing for instruction, flight time, and room and board. Applicants must be enrolled in a JROTC program.
Chew was drawn to military aviation from an early age. Several family members are U.S. military veterans, including his father, who currently serves in the National Guard. Through Civil Air Patrol, a civilian auxiliary to the U.S. Air Force, Chew previously went on “discovery” flights, where he watched pilots at the controls, and he attended a CAP aviation program in the summer of 2023 at Columbus Air Force Base in Mississippi. There, he went through simulations and testing for the T-6A Texan II, the aircraft used to teach Navy and Air Force aviators.
Thomas Chew on the tarmac (Photo courtesy Chew family)
“[The CAP program] really helped for this summer camp. It prepared me for some of the mental challenges I faced,” Chew says. “We’re all in the air together, and we see that nobody’s perfect. Some things I thought would be really easy [this year] were really challenging, and some things I thought would be hard were really easy.”
Both Chew and Hamlin were encouraged to apply for the Flight Academy program by JROTC instructors at their respective schools and were among only 28 selected from a nationwide pool. Unlike Chew, Hamlin had been in the air only twice before arriving at the academy, both times as a passenger in a commercial aircraft.
“I thought [the academy] would be really interesting, because I love being up high,” she says. “As a first-time flier, it was scary, but when you’re literally flying every day, it becomes secondhand nature. You’re not nervous anymore.”
Hamlin was relieved the academy schedule had a firm 10 p.m. lights-out policy. “I was prepared for long days,” she says. “I did expect it to be hard, and when I got there, it was hard, but [organizers] wanted to make sure we got enough sleep.”
In order to receive their private pilot’s license, participants needed to pass the required tests, put in more than 40 hours of flight training and complete 17 hours of solo flights. Some of those hours had to be at night and on “cross-country” trips, flying to a destination at least 50 nautical miles from Delaware Airpark, the home airport for Delaware State’s aviation program. Adverse weather complicated testing schedules for all participants, leading Chew to earn his certification the week after the academy ended. Hamlin is working out a schedule with an instructor so she can finish her licensure as well.
Ananda Hamlin with instructor James Suddard during the Flight Academy (Photo courtesy Ananda Hamlin)
With a new school year underway, Hamlin and Chew are contemplating their futures. Hamlin is bypassing VSU’s Army ROTC program for now, focusing on acclimating to college and her role on VSU’s track team, where she is adding hurdles to her 400-meter and 800-meter repertoire. “I do want to be a pilot with the Air Force, but I want to get my degree first,” she says. Chew is considering applying to the U.S. Air Force Academy and Virginia Tech’s ROTC Corps of Cadets.
Since the academy was first offered in 2022, 20 participants have either accepted ROTC scholarships for college or enrolled in a service academy.
“There are so many different aspects of aviation, depending on what your interests are, and there are real benefits that come with military service,” Graham says. “Whether you choose to do your commitment and exit or make a career, the skill sets acquired [build] on others, and you keep your education with you.”
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