Veterans Service Organizations Join to Offer Drone Bootcamp for Veterans and Their Families

Veterans Service Organizations Join to Offer Drone Bootcamp for Veterans and Their Families

Wounded Eagle, The Military Order of the Purple Heart and MyMappix have announced the joining of their organizations to provide a Drone Bootcamp for Purple Heart recipient veterans and their families Nov. 13-14 near Pleasant Point, West Virginia. 

The Drone Bootcamp will teach students how to fly small Unmanned Aerial Systems (SUAS) both recreationally as well as commercially, opening up career opportunities and recreational competition. According to Wounded Eagle founder and instructor Jason Dorando, the course includes “introductory flight training with ‘hands-on’ stick and tablet operations.”            

Applications to the program can be found at PurpleHeart.com or weuas.com. Applicants must be Purple Heart recipients, veterans or family members of a veteran. The event is limited to 10 participants in order to provide a more personal flight training environment, Dorando said.

There is no fee for the boot camp itself, participants just need to purchase the drone that they will train with, which costs approximately $30, and pay any travel fees to get to the event.

The national commander of MOPH and veteran, James McCormick, said the partnership of the organizations will be ongoing, with approximately four to six hands-on training sessions per year, two days each. The training will also include online learning as well, which will be completely self-paced, according to McCormick. 

My Mappix, a cloud-based media management company, is also joining with MOPH and Wounded Eagle to help with the training by providing Drone Bootcamp students access to their online tutorials for passing the Federal Aviation Agency Part 107 and 5 gigs of storage to map and store their drone photo and media collections.

Dorando, also a veteran, is particularly excited about the efforts of the three organizations. “The MOPH boot camp training program is my way of showing my gratitude and humble thanks to those who’ve served our great country and the honor to share with them the commercial and recreational possibilities created by discovering the joy of flight,” he said.

Most of all, Dorando said he wants to show wounded veterans who are confined to wheelchairs how to fly and show them how to convert their wheelchair into a pilot seat.