Helicopter excites Rocky Boy students during STEM training

Some students and teachers on Rocky Boy's Indian Reservation got a chance Thursday morning to climb into a Montana Army National Guard UH-72 Lakota helicopter and meet the state's highest ranking military officer.

The helicopter touched down at 9:30 a.m on the football field near Rocky Boy High School.

Teachers, students and assorted spectators were on the scene to watch the helicopter swoop overhead, circle the field and ultimately touch down.

After the helicopter sat idle for about two minutes and the blades stopped spinning, Montana National Guard Adjutant General Matthew Quinn, the state's top military officer, emerged with three other members of the National Guard.

Quinn soon approached the crowd of spectators. Then with his consent, teachers began escorting groups of 10 students who ranged from grades four to nine over to climb into the helicopter.

Each wave of students climbed into the cockpit where they marveled at the array of buttons, switches and equipment. Some students could be seen smiling while others in the two back seats held up their phones and posed for selfies.

Brig. Gen. Bryan Fox of the Montana Air National Guard, who was also on hand, said the Lakota had just recently become part of the U.S Army and Army National Guard inventory and is one of two owned by the Montana Guard.

Quinn later told students that the Lakota is commonly used for search and rescue operations using its infrared camera.

The display of the helicopter and visit by Quinn is part of the STARBASE STEM summer camp, a program funded by the U.S Department of Defense that seeks to interest children, mainly those in grades four, five and six, in the fields of science, technology, engineering and math through a series of hands-on activities.

Typically, the program is a five-day-a-week program during the school year run out of the Air National Guard Base in Great Falls and Fort Harrison in Helena.

Wendy Fechter, STARBASE program manager for the state of Montana, said this is the first year the program is holding five daylong summer camps.

Fechter said the week of activities will conclude today when students launch water rockets that they built Wednesday.

At Rocky Boy, 25 students in grades four and five and a few in grades eight and nine are taking part in the camp.

Fechter said many of the younger students Thursday left after watching the helicopter land to go on a field trip to a water park in Great Falls.

Throughout the week, students engaged in activities such as robotics, exercises in engineering design, circuitry and building small chariots that can be operated by remote control.

After students got to look at the helicopter, Quinn and Fox went with the four STARBASE staffmembers and about a dozen students down to the high school for a short discussion.

Quinn said that flying helicopters requires sharp math and science skills.

Though he was not there to recruit, Quinn said that he tells the students in every STARBASE STEM course if the want to be in the National Guard or the military, they need to "stay in school, stay in shape and stay out of trouble."