04.05.2020.

Minister Vulin: Future pilots and students in the final year of the Secondary Vocational Military School did not interrupt their classes during the pandemic

- Our future pilots and students in the final year of the Secondary Vocational Military School did not interrupt their classes during the pandemic. In accordance with doctors’ recommendations, because of the specific nature of their future occupation and because of all they have to do and learn, we kept them at school, kept them in the barracks in quarantine conditions, taking care of them and their health every day. During all this time, no cadets of the Military Academy and no students of the Secondary Vocational Military School were infected, their health was not threatened – said the Minister of Defence Aleksandar Vulin, who visited today the students of the 47^th Class of Secondary Vocational Military School’s Air Force and Air Defence Department and cadets of the 140^th and 141^st Classes of the Air Force Module who are undergoing training at the "Colonel-Pilot Milenko Pavlović" airport in Batajnica.

According to him, they have been diligently studying and working all the time, which is why the students of the Secondary Vocational Military School are taking the graduation exam today, and in accordance with the curriculum, the completion of education of our future pilots is also expected.

- The Serbian Armed Forces have shown once again how organized and competent they are, how much they take care of all their members, and the Military Academy and the military education in general have shown that they are able to adapt to every need and every situation - Minister Vulin emphasized.

According to Major General Bojan Zrnić, the Commandant of the Military Academy, despite the pandemic, cadets of the 140^th and 141^st Classes of the Military Academy have maintained continuity of education, and the students of the 47^th Class of the Secondary Vocational Military School’s Air Force and Air Technical Service Department are completing their education these days and will take graduation exam. After that, he added, they are completing military-vocational training, and their promotion to NCOs will be held at the end of September this year.

- In addition to continuing and completing the education of current generations at the Military Academy, we look forward to starting the selection process next week based on the competition for enrolment that ended on 15^th March. The conditions were met for the selection process to start on 12^th March. Candidates will first be invited to enrol in the Military Grammar School and then in the Secondary Vocational Military School, while future cadets of the Military Academy are due to take a math test and a physical fitness test on 16^th May - said General Zrnić.

Dušan Tanasijević, 140^th Class cadet, who is in the fifth year at the Military Academy’s Air Force Department and is training for an aircraft pilot, was also in training today.

- We are currently undergoing training on the Lasta V54 aircraft, and the final part of the training related to instrument flying is underway. When we complete the training on Lasta, we are moving on to the Galeb G4 aircraft - points out Cadet Tanasijević, adding that, so far, the training has been carried out according to plan and that after this segment a part of the training involving night flying is expected, after which the requirements for moving on to jet aviation will be fulfilled.

One of the students of the Secondary Vocational Military School’s Air Force and Air Defence Department is a fourth-year student, Junior Sergeant Božidar Mitrić who points out that after they finish school, they are going to take graduation exam, defend their graduation papers and then undergo special trainings and do an internship.

He emphasizes that he is satisfied with the training, that they had the opportunity to test theoretical knowledge in practice, on an aircraft, and that the students remembered everything the teachers taught them.

The visit began with a briefing by the Commandant of the Military Academy, Major General Bojan Zrnić, who briefed the Minister of Defence on the continuation of education and selection for enrolment in military schools in the coming period, after which Minister Vulin attended the training of cadets and students at the Batajnica airport apron and talked to their superiors and instructors.

Rector of the University of Defence, Lieutenant General Goran Radovanovic, Assoc. Prof., PhD, Commander of the AF and AD Major General Duško Žarković and the Head of the Secondary Vocational Military School, Colonel Stevan Mušicki, PhD, also visited students training at the "Colonel-Pilot Milenko Pavlović" airport.