ROB LAURENT BECOMES SECOND WOUNDED VETERAN TO EARN LICENSE WITH ABLE FLIGHT SCHOLARSHIP

Saturday May 16,  2009 is a day that Rob Laurent will never forget. It was the day that he passed his check ride  to become Able Flight's eleventh licensed pilot, and the second  wounded veteran to earn his pilot certificate with a scholarship.

Rob was serving as a Tank Armor Crewman when he was severely injured during an IED ambush near Samarra, Iraq on Christmas Eve, 2004. Evacuated first to Germany and then to Walter Reed Army Medical Center, he lost an eye and suffered a partially amputated left hand as the result of the explosion. In 2007, he was encouraged to apply for an Able Flight scholarship by an outreach officer of the Wounded Warrior Project.

While serving as an intern for Wounded Warrior Project, Rob studied at Texas State University and graduated with a degree in Criminal Justice in 2008.  The father of three is currently working on his master's degree in an aviation program through Embry Riddle University.

He initially began his flight training  during a special project Able Flight organized at AirVenture 2007, but a temporary problem with his remaining eye cut his progress short and he returned to Texas to complete college. Earlier this year he  moved to Florida and resumed his training with instructor Bryan Woodard of U.S. Sport Aircraft. Fying a SportCruiser off the grass runway of Hibiscus Airport near Vero Beach, Rob learned to compensate for flying with one eye and progressed quickly.  He notes that one benefit of learning to fly near the Florida coastline was the almost constant presence of winds, giving him much-appreciated experience learning to deal with the effects of crosswinds in a light sport airplane.  Photo on right: (L-R) Instructor Bryan Woodard and Rob Laurent.

Soon he and his family will move to Kansas  where he'll complete his studies, and then he'll begin work on yet another master's degree  while also serving as an instructor in a special program at Fort Leavenworth. Rob plans to stay active as a pilot and has alreday been checking into the availability of an airplane to rent for his first flight into  AirVenture at Oshkosh as a licensed pilot.