Cadets build homes for Navajo Nation

  • Published
  • By John Van Winkle
  • U.S. Air Force Academy Public Affairs
U.S. AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo. --  Fifty-seven Air Force Academy cadets started their civil engineer careers by building two homes for the Navajo Nation as part of the Academy's Field Engineering and Readiness Laboratory May 31.

The FERL is a summer engineering course exposing cadets to the various aspects of civil engineering through June 19.

Cadets are constructing two Hogans, traditional eight-sided Navajo homes, and will donate them to the Navajo Nation in Arizona and New Mexico via the Southwest Indian Foundation.

The FERL is offered to cadets every year during the first summer period and is a requirement for Academy civil and environmental engineering cadets.

"The motto of FERL is 'Build first, design later," said Cadet 1st Class Dana Sanelli, FERL cadet commander. "FERL gives us a chance to get hands-on experience at the skills we will later use in our careers. Everything we do is tied to an Academy class."

Cadets teamed with 70 active duty, Reserve and civilian Air Force civil engineers who visit the Academy every year to mentor future civil engineers. The Academy cadets are augmented by 12 ROTC cadets, five U.S. Naval Academy midshipmen and one U.S. Military Academy cadet.

The cadets built and donated 41 Hogans during the last 12 years. The year, the FERL team will add the 42nd and 43rd Hogans to that list, said Lt. Col. Scott Bole, FERL commander.