Fifty-four Civil Air Patrol cadets from 31 states reported to Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro, Tenn., from July 18-25, 2026, for the National Cadet Engineering Technology Academy, a competitively selected week whose title contained the word “engineering” and whose calendar contained horse science, fashion studies, social work, criminal justice, public health, the recording industry, and a tour of the School of Concrete and Construction Management Building.
Missouri Wing’s Maj. Christina Ragain, the academy director and lead for the 14 adults assigned to the activity, said state-of-the-art facilities and outstanding faculty created exceptional learning experiences. She named the week’s highlights as James E. Walker Library MakerSpace projects, aviation simulations, BAJA rovers, and a meeting with retired Lt. Gen. Keith Huber, MTSU’s senior adviser for veterans and leadership initiatives. Engineering, in this sequence, is the interval between a rover and a general.
Cadets used patient simulators for drills in the School of Nursing and otherwise moved through classroom lectures, academic projects, hands-on learning, and computer simulations staged by the colleges of Basic and Applied Sciences and Behavioral and Health Sciences, with supplemental opportunities from the Scott Borchetta College of Media and Entertainment and the College of Education, including a television studio reserved for video interviews. Cadet Lt. Col. Ava Zendejas of Washington Wing, the academy’s cadet commander, said faculty had “carefully curated every facet of this week to ensure that cadets not only learn about engineering but also experience the full scope of opportunities MTSU has to offer.” The second clause reads as the actual operations order.
While the cadets occupied Murfreesboro, CAP’s national commander and CEO, Maj. Gen. Regena Aye, was at EAA AirVenture in Oshkosh, Wisconsin — MTSU having deployed to the same airshow that week — telling Flying Magazine that “we have about 60 cadets there now, learning about the aviation career field.” The academy roster was 54. The career field, on the days in question, included nursing simulators and concrete.
Andrew Oppmann, MTSU’s vice president for marketing and communications, a CAP lieutenant colonel, and a member of CAP’s Board of Governors, congratulated the cadets during opening ceremonies on their selection to “this very selective academy.” Seated on stage were Greg Van Patten, dean of the College of Basic and Applied Sciences; Beth Loughry, a public relations specialist in Marketing and Communications; and Huber, who also conducted a leadership seminar. The seating chart is a reasonably complete map of the week’s priorities.
MTSU and CAP have partnered on aerospace education since 2014 and hosted the academy since 2017, after an earlier arrangement from 1948 to 1953, when students taking flight training at the on-campus airport organized CAP’s Middle Tennessee State College Squadron. The present itinerary has grown from that airport to include agriculture, athletic training, and exercise science. Ragain said CAP was already looking ahead to returning next year. “We look forward to continuing to work with MTSU into the future,” she said, which, on the available evidence, will involve more buildings.