Chances are, you have a tube of this in that kitchen drawer, you know, the one with all the takeout menus, rubber bands and random keys to who knows what doors (you should probably clean that out by the way), because it’s an undeniable necessity.

But before it occupied space in our junk drawers, and our hearts, it was accidentally developed for the U.S. military.

Too sticky for Army weapons

In 1942, companies across the country were looking to support the war effort, including the Eastman Kodak Company. One if its inventors, Dr. Harry Wesley Coover, accidentally created a new compound while attempting to make clear plastic gun sights for Allied soldiers.

The compound, cyanoacrylate, was incredibly durable but way too sticky to use. (Imagine getting Krazy Glue anywhere near your eye. No thanks!) So Coover and his team abandoned the substance, not wanting to get stuck, literally or figuratively, on it.

Over a decade later, Coover, who would become known as “Mr. Super Glue,” rediscovered the adhesive compound while researching heat-resistant polymers for jet canopies. Cyanoacrylate adhesives required no heat or pressure to stick items together and hold them permanently. Thus, in 1956, the patent for “Alcohol-Catalyzed Cyanoacrylate Adhesive Compositions/Superglue” was born. How’s that for a name?

Coover and the Eastman team took the patent and repackaged it for commercial sale as “Eastman 910″ – which was later changed to “Super Glue.” This name stuck and still is used for a number of similarly adhesive products today.

A savior for soldiers in sticky situations

Even though the glue was discovered during World War II, military doctors during the Vietnam War capitalized on the product’s adhesive properties to save lives.

Many soldiers suffered injuries off-base, often bleeding out before getting proper care. Thanks to Coover’s invention, medics were able to spray super glue directly on skin to stop bleeding until the patient could make it to a hospital for treatment.

“This was very powerful. That’s something I’m very proud of – the number of lives that were saved,” Coover said in an interview with the Kingsport Times-News.

At this time, the chemical was not yet approved by the Food and Drug Administration because it had the potential to cause skin irritation. A derivative from the same chemical (2-octyl-cyanoacrylate) was approved in 1998 and functioned as a liquid bandage. Marketed under the names Dermabond and Traumaseal, these products pose less danger of irritation and bacterial infection and are available for civilian use.

So the next time you break your mom’s favorite vase and need to glue it back together, give thanks to Mr. Super Glue for finding something that was too sticky for the Army to use.

Under the Survivors’ and Dependents’ Educational Assistance (DEA) program, your spouse or child may be able to get help paying for school or job training. Through this program, commonly known as Chapter 35 benefits, both the dependent and the veteran or service member must meet eligibility requirements under the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

Eligibility requirements

The service member must have died in the line of duty after September 10, 2001, be missing in action or have been captured in the line of duty by a hostile force, held by force while in the line of duty by a foreign government or power or be in the hospital or receiving outpatient treatment for a service-connected permanent and total disability, and be likely to be discharged for that disability.

A child or spouse of a veteran may qualify if the veteran is permanently and totally disabled due to a service-connected disability or died while on active duty or as a result of a service-connected disability.

The VA defines a service-connected permanent and total disability as a disability resulting from service that does not go away.

How to apply

To apply for GI Bill and related benefits, potential applicants should determine if they are eligible on the VA’s website.

Applicants need their Social Security number, bank account direct deposit information, education and military history and basic information about the education institution they plan to attend or are currently attending.

When applying for education benefits, dependents must also check with their school’s certifying official to ensure their program is approved for VA benefits. If the school is approved, the dependent can apply online or by mail using a Dependents’ Application for VA Education Benefits (VA Form 22-5490).

A decision usually comes within 30 days, according to an average estimate from the VA’s website.

DEA details

DEA benefits last for a maximum of 36 months and cover a variety of educational programs (college, business, technical, vocational), certification tests, apprenticeships and on-the-job training, tutorial assistance and work study.

The VA pays the monthly amount directly to the student. Currently, the monthly payment for full-time training is $1,265. Spouses and children qualify for slightly different benefits under the DEA. Children may use their benefits between ages 18 and 26. Spouses are able to use the benefits for 20 years from the date of the service member’s death (if they died on active duty), 10 years from a VA-determined date of qualification or from the veteran’s date of death.

Both groups may have some exceptions applied to their use of benefits.

The Fry Scholarship

There is also another program that offers educational assistance to dependents. The Marine Gunnery Sergeant John David Fry Scholarship grants money to children and spouses of service members who died in the line of duty after September 10, 2001. The Fry Scholarship grants up to 36 months of benefits that apply to tuition, housing and books and supplies.

Dependents who qualify for both the Fry Scholarship and DEA must choose what program they would like to use. The choice cannot be changed later. This choice excludes children whose parent died in the line of active duty before August 1, 2011. The child may use both programs for up to 81 months of full-time training, but only one program can be used at a time.

Veterans and Athletes United (VAU), a veteran-run nonprofit that supports disabled veterans through adaptive sports and recreation, completed the memorial in 2018 and it has traveled nationwide ever since.

“We hope to bring awareness of the heavy price paid for this flag and to keep our country free,” said James Howard, Founder and President of VAU, in a press release. “We hope our memorial provides an opportunity for visitors to honor, reflect, and heal.”

Most recently, the memorial made a three week-long stop in front of the America’s Response Monument at Liberty Park on the World Trade Center campus in New York.

Designed for Old Glory

Shaped like an American flag when draped over a fallen troop’s casket, the memorial itself is made of 7,040 dog tags. Each one represents a service member who died during the War on Terror. Fifty gold stars honor gold star families nationwide.

The dog tags that make up the flag are organized in alphabetical order and then chronologically by the date the service member was killed in action. Blank tags at the end of the flag will continue to be filled in as the war continues, according to the VAU website’s memorial page.

In front of the flag that spans 28 feet horizontally and six feet vertically is a battle field cross. Alicia Dietz, a veteran artist, sculpted this from mahogany wood.

Honoring fallen troops across the country

Sites can request to host the installation on the VAU website. So far, the memorial has traveled to over 50 locations around the United States. Visitors to the memorial can use the Defense Casualty Analysis System site to find the location of specific names on the memorial.

The VAU Fallen Heroes Memorial was slated to be displayed next at the DoD Warrior Games at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex in Orlando, Florida. When the games were cancelled on Aug. 17 as a precaution for the COVID-19 Delta Variant, Howard told Military Times that VAU was looking to move the memorial to alternate locations. These locations include two Travis Manion Foundation 9/11 Heroes Run events – one in Richmond, Virginia, and the other in Annapolis, Maryland.

Proceeds from the memorial’s country-wide travel support gold star family organizations and the memorial’s goal of creating a national memorial in Washington, D.C., according to the VAU press release.

When it is not traveling around the country, the memorial stands at the VAU veterans retreat in Richmond, Virginia.

In order to boost the amount of people who can see the memorial, Howard said VAU is looking to build a second memorial on the West Coast. The organization is looking for veteran volunteer builders like the ones who created the original memorial.

All U.S. troops were supposed to be withdrawn from Afghanistan by the end of August per an order from President Joe Biden. However, an increase of troops to help evacuate Americans and allies has raised questions about the deadline’s feasibility.

Here’s what you need to know about the history of the war in Afghanistan and what is going on in the country now:

How many U.S. troops are headed to Afghanistan?

Around 6,000 U.S. troops have been deployed to Afghanistan over the past few days. Pentagon officials have said that these troops are only there to help evacuate Americans and other allies out of the country as the Taliban seizes parts of the country, including the capital.

Before this increase, fewer than 1,000 troops were left in the country ahead of the withdrawal deadline later this month.

As of Aug. 17, approximately 2,500 troops were on the ground at Hamid Karzai International Airport to assist the departure of American and Afghan civilians from the country. Thousands of civilians crowded the airport’s tarmac hoping for an escape from Taliban control.

When did the U.S. invade Afghanistan?

The U.S. invaded Afghanistan on Oct. 7, 2001 — almost a month after al-Qaeda hijacked four planes on September 11, 2001. Two planes crashed into the World Trade Center in New York City, one hit the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. and one crash-landed in a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, en route to its suspected target—the White House.

Why were U.S. troops sent to Afghanistan?

The U.S. invaded Afghanistan following the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States. After determining that the group responsible for the 9/11 attacks was based in the country, President George W. Bush called on the Taliban to hand over al-Qaeda’s leader, Osama bin Laden. When they would not give him up, Congress authorized a use of force on those responsible for the attacks in a joint resolution on September 18, 2001.

The U.S. military, backed by British forces, invaded Afghanistan on Oct. 7. The invasion began with a bombing campaign against the Taliban and al-Qaeda called Operation Enduring Freedom that lasted for five days.

In 2011, the number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan peaked at around 110,000.

How many service members died in Afghanistan? How many contractors died?

To date, 2,448 American service members have died in Afghanistan since the war started. About 4,000 U.S. civilian contractors have died in Afghanistan, according to Forbes. When combined with the number of troops that have died, this brings the total American death toll to nearly 6,500.

How many service members were wounded?

More than 20,000 service members have been wounded since the outset of the conflict, according to the U.S. Department of Defense Casualty Status report.

How much money has the war cost U.S. taxpayers?

According to estimates by Costs of War Project at Brown University, the Defense Department has spent $1.9 trillion on the War in Afghanistan. But the entire “war-related” spend through fiscal year 2020, including the next four years of financial obligations to veterans, is $6.4 trillion.

Is the war in Afghanistan technically over?

Following the takeover of Kabul, Afghanistan’s capital city, the Taliban declared the war in Afghanistan over.

For the United States, the answer is more complicated. The U.S. never declared a formal war in Afghanistan.

In December 2014, the U.S. and NATO formally ended the campaign in Afghanistan, three months after the country’s new president, Ashraf Ghani, was inaugurated. The U.S. left around 13,000 troops there to support and train Afghan security forces to ensure the country stayed stable.

Earlier this year, Biden planned for all U.S. troops to be out of Afghanistan by August 31, 2021, ahead of the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. With the deployment of more troops to the country to help evacuations comes the test of Biden’s withdrawal deadline.

In a press conference on Aug. 16, Biden stood “squarely behind” his decision to withdraw troops from the country. However, he added the U.S. would support the Afghan people as the Taliban seize power once again.

Once he finds a branch he likes along the river bank, he sands and varnishes it, turning it into a walking or hiking stick. He describes finding them as “therapeutic” for himself.

While making a trip down to the river in 2018, Daley met a man on the bank who he noticed was living out of his car. After telling the man why he was collecting sticks, Daley learned the man’s name was Paul, and that he was a homeless U.S. military veteran.

All Daley had was $36 from his wallet, but he felt that giving him the money was not enough.

“I knew I was gonna help him somehow,” Daley told Military Times. “I knew that the money was just very temporary.”

When Daley saw the sadness on Paul’s face after he handed over the cash, he realized that this veteran was looking for something more than money.

“Tell you what, if you’re interested, I would love to hire you to sand and varnish these walking sticks I found today,” Daley said to Paul, according to the River Walking Sticks website.

When Daley came back a few days later, he found the sticks finished to his liking. Though Paul is now receiving help and health treatment, the experience stuck with Daley and he wanted to continue his work to help the local veteran community.

That’s how he started River Walking Sticks, a company that employs veterans to make artisanal handstaffs.

“They’re tough guys – they’re very proud,” Daley explained about why Paul and other veterans in similar situations are hesitant to ask for help. “They don’t like to admit that [they need help].”

Fast-forward to the summer of 2021, River Walking Sticks now employs three veterans, with sights set on attracting more through a partnership with the homeless shelter Faith Mission in Ohio.

So far, River Walking Sticks sells four different designs for its walking sticks and canes. Each stick is custom can have an authentic, vintage military button built into it. The sticks are also named with a motivational saying and come with a short bio of the veteran that worked on it.

Employed veterans work on numerous parts of the process of making a walking stick, from customizing the sticks, to customer service, to embedding buttons in the wood.

In addition to employing veterans, River Walking Sticks also gives a portion of its proceeds to its partner Faith Mission and another organization that works to help veterans who struggle with ideas of suicide called Save A Warrior. Both of these are Ohio-based, like River Walking Sticks.

As River Walking Sticks grows, its mission listed on its website remains “to employ as many veterans as possible by selling thousands, maybe millions, of beautiful custom walking sticks.”

Daley also hopes to expand to a physical building in spring 2022 and hire more veterans to add to the line of walking sticks.

Chances are, you have a tube of this in that kitchen drawer, you know, the one with all the takeout menus, rubber bands and random keys to who knows what doors (you should probably clean that out by the way), because it’s an undeniable necessity.

But before it occupied space in our junk drawers, and our hearts, it was accidentally developed for the U.S. military.

Too sticky for Army weapons

In 1942, companies across the country were looking to support the war effort, including the Eastman Kodak Company. One if its inventors, Dr. Harry Wesley Coover, accidentally created a new compound while attempting to make clear plastic gun sights for Allied soldiers.

The compound, cyanoacrylate, was incredibly durable but way too sticky to use. (Imagine getting Krazy Glue anywhere near your eye. No thanks!) So Coover and his team abandoned the substance, not wanting to get stuck, literally or figuratively, on it.

Over a decade later, Coover, who would become known as “Mr. Super Glue,” rediscovered the adhesive compound while researching heat-resistant polymers for jet canopies. Cyanoacrylate adhesives required no heat or pressure to stick items together and hold them permanently. Thus, in 1956, the patent for “Alcohol-Catalyzed Cyanoacrylate Adhesive Compositions/Superglue” was born. How’s that for a name?

Coover and the Eastman team took the patent and repackaged it for commercial sale as “Eastman 910″ – which was later changed to “Super Glue.” This name stuck and still is used for a number of similarly adhesive products today.

A savior for soldiers in sticky situations

Even though the glue was discovered during World War II, military doctors during the Vietnam War capitalized on the product’s adhesive properties to save lives.

Many soldiers suffered injuries off-base, often bleeding out before getting proper care. Thanks to Coover’s invention, medics were able to spray super glue directly on skin to stop bleeding until the patient could make it to a hospital for treatment.

“This was very powerful. That’s something I’m very proud of – the number of lives that were saved,” Coover said in an interview with the Kingsport Times-News.

At this time, the chemical was not yet approved by the Food and Drug Administration because it had the potential to cause skin irritation. A derivative from the same chemical (2-octyl-cyanoacrylate) was approved in 1998 and functioned as a liquid bandage. Marketed under the names Dermabond and Traumaseal, these products pose less danger of irritation and bacterial infection and are available for civilian use.

So the next time you break your mom’s favorite vase and need to glue it back together, give thanks to Mr. Super Glue for finding something that was too sticky for the Army to use.

In 1914, General Order No. 99 banned liquor aboard naval vessels, and it was shortly followed by the 18th Amendment making alcohol illegal across the entire United States. As a result, ice cream became the de facto staple for boosting morale.

Even though Prohibition only lasted six years, sailors’ love for ice cream extended well after. In 1942, the aircraft carrier USS Lexington sustained damage from a Japanese torpedo and began sinking. As sailors abandoned ship, they grabbed containers of ice cream from the freezers and began chowing down.

“Survivors describe scooping ice cream into their helmets and licking them clean before lowering themselves into the Pacific,” wrote Matt Siegel in an Atlantic essay.

That fierce dedication to frosted sugar dairy led the Navy to spend $1 million on an ice cream barge.

The branch, which borrowed the concrete barge from the Army, retrofitted it as an at-sea ice cream factory and parlor. The ship, which was stationed in the Western Pacific, carted ice cream around to ships smaller than a destroyer that did not have their own ice cream-making facilities aboard.

The floating factory was able to make ten gallons of ice cream in just seven minutes, meaning one shift on the barge could produce approximately 500 gallons of frozen dessert for sailors. To accommodate the large amount of ice cream made, the barge could hold 2,000 gallons at a time.

The barge was not the most practical ship in the Navy. The concrete boat had no engine of its own and had to be pulled around by tug boats. Regardless of any difficulty this provided, it was a sailor-favorite because it brought them a pretty good reward for service.

Unfortunately, the unnamed ship no longer delivers ice cream to deployed sailors. The fate of the ice cream barge is unknown, but some think it may rest in a bay with other bygone ships of the era.

“Choosing the Harder Right” tells the story of Cadet Timothy Ringgold, who stood up to senior leadership at his beloved school and aided fellow cadets during the infamous 1976 West Point cheating scandal.

Ringgold was a year away from graduating in 1976, when he and other cadets were selected at random to meet with then-Under Secretary of the Army Norman R. Augustine. Each was questioned about a scandal involving 153 upperclassmen who resigned or were expelled for cheating on an electrical engineering exam. The secretary of the Army went as far as appointing a select commission headed by former astronaut Frank Borman to review the case. By the end of the ordeal, more than 90 of those caught cheating were reinstated and allowed to graduate.

While Ringgold was not directly involved in any violation, he believed the institution’s honor system was “not fairly administered.”

“I thought it was a bunch of nonsense,” Ringgold told Military Times, explaining what he told Augustine during the 1976 meeting. “In my opinion the cadets who were involved did no more or less than we all have done. Cadets are only human, cadets make mistakes. This just did not seem to me to be an an incident worth making a crisis out of.”

As news spread of the 1976 incident, which was considered the largest cheating scandal in service academy history, Ringgold called for outside assistance, going as far as asking Arizona Republican Senator Barry Goldwater for an impartial investigation. In doing so, Ringgold became the de facto spokesperson for the accused cadets.

“West Point clearly lost its way in the 1970s,” he said. “I think the changes that have occurred since have made West Point the very strong institution that it is.”

Ringgold faced expulsion for his stance, but would go on to graduate in 1977 after West Point dropped all charges following the discovery of “new evidence” that implied cheating was far more widespread than West Point leadership suggested.

Today, Ringgold, who would go on to enjoy a distinguished career at the Pentagon, Capitol Hill and the White House, said he hopes the information in this book will be a reminder of what it takes to keep an institution in check.

“Every revered institution like the military academy can have flaws and lose its way,” he said. “If there’s not a constant vigilance to make sure you’re on the right path … then history will repeat itself and we will have the chaos and confusion and disappointment we had so many years ago.”

Discovering the Untold Story

Author Destiny Jennifer Ringgold, the subject’s daughter, was unaware of her father’s story or role in the scandal until discovering following a recent online search of his name.

“I was in the process of doing a sequel to my first book and I knew [my father] had a complex relationship with West Point,” she told Military Times. “It really took my breath away because I didn’t understand the history behind the story until I sat down with my dad and asked him.”

Despite his daughter’s newfound curiosity, Ringgold initially ignored her queries, telling Military Times that the story is one he would have never written himself.

“I’m very much at peace with what my role was,” he said. “I have no regrets about the stand I took, but that doesn’t mean I want to relive it.”

Eventually, however, Ringgold acquiesced to his daughter’s inquiries.

“I think this is an important part of West Point history,” Destiny Ringgold said. “This was a dark period but I knew there was a lot of good that came out of it.”

The book’s title, meanwhile, comes from an excerpt from the Cadet Prayer.

“Make us to choose the harder right instead of the easier wrong, and never to be content with a half truth when the whole can be won.”

The sentiment also explains why Ringgold stood up to West Point leadership.

“We were all fighting for the same thing,” he said. “We all believed in the honor code and we wanted standards; it was just a difference of how we got there.”

Even though “Choosing the Harder Right” is based on his own story, Ringgold, whose father and older brothers also served, wants readers to know that the story remains bigger than him.

“The real story here is how a lot of people came together and were willing to sacrifice their career to put values [first],” said Ringgold, acknowledging the West Point-graduate attorneys, the chaplain and officers who fought alongside him.

“They all sacrificed their careers in order to force West Point to correct the ills of the time, so that it [could] become the world class institution that it remains today.”

“Choosing the Harder Right” is now available for purchase.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

One of the squad’s machine gunners, Lance Cpl. Irvin M. Ceniceros, sustained a life-threatening sucking chest wound in the ambush. Despite the grievous injury, Ceniceros continued to fight, sending rounds down range while the other Marines advanced to safety.

As his fellow Marines tried to bring him to safety, Ceniceros remained on the trigger. And while he succeeded in saving numerous lives, the 21-year-old would eventually succumb to his wounds.

The son of Mexican immigrants who came to the U.S. in 1985, Ceniceros was beloved by his fellow Marines for his willingness to serve his country and his brothers. Eleven years later, Marines from the Ronin 3 platoon met to honor the Silver Star recipient during a filmed reunion that is forming the basis of a forthcoming documentary.

CHRONICLING UNTOLD STORIES

Jeanne McKinney, who filmed and co-produced the documentary alongside her husband Dave, told Military Times she wanted to document Ronin 3′s story because of the lack of attention this era of fighting in Afghanistan has gotten.

“The fight over there needs to be chronicled just like any war,” McKinney said. “It was just an incredible time of bravery, of courage.” This particular documentary was made possible because of Ceniceros and his legacy, McKinney added.

In a short tribute video released on YouTube — and recently screened to graduating recruits — those who served alongside Ceniceros discuss fond memories of the Arkansan. But the fallen lance corporal’s story is not the only one featured in the film. As she progressed through each interview with Darkhorse Marines, McKinney realized just how many accounts from Sangin remain untold.

“We’re going to get to hear stories that we would never hear,” McKinney said. “They [3/5 Marines] were put together as a team to do a nearly impossible mission.”

Many of those Marines sustained significant injuries along the way, yet remained in the fight.

“These guys have a family — brotherly love that’s really hard to put words to,” said McKinney.

Today, a handful of the Marines from that harrowing campaign remain on active-duty. And while others have since retired, McKinney says the unit has remained in contact, supporting one another in the wake of the trauma of war. One such Marine is 1st Sgt. Dan Robert, who was chosen in 2017 as the Military Times Marine of the Year.

HALTED PRODUCTION

The first production meeting for the film was in early March 2020, days before the coronavirus pandemic ground everything to a halt.

To continue working amid restrictions implemented in the wake of pandemic lockdowns, the filmmakers opted to shoot outdoors. With the support of the Marine Corps, the crew was able to set up filming locations at Camp Pendleton and in Bridgeport, California.

Wind and other weather conditions made outdoor filming difficult at times, McKinney said, but in the end, filming on base allowed the Marines to return to the site of where they were trained.

As word about the documentary has spread, more Marines have come forward, asking to participate and share stories. McKinney said the number of Marines involved since beginning the project has grown from five to more than 20.

“We’re going to get into the hearts and minds of the combat warriors that served in Sangin in 2010 in a whole new light,” McKinney said, adding that she hopes the documentary will allow both civilians and Marines to connect with those who endured combat in Sangin.

McKinney and her team plan to have the documentary finished by the end of 2021, with the hope of streaming options available shortly after.

The sport takes the typical after-school robotics club to the next level and may look slightly familiar to Harry Potter’s Quidditch. Thanks to Maj. Kyle Sanders, it is making headway in the western US.

Sanders got involved with the up-and-coming robotic sport after he separated from the Air Force. Sanders flew the C-130 in Iraq and Afghanistan after graduating from the Air Force Academy. He also is a trained pilot and previously instructed at the Air Force Academy. In all of his assignments, he worked in science outreach programs and wanted to continue this work. Drone soccer provided a unique opportunity to do so and he now serves as the vice president of U.S. Drone Soccer, which helps make drone soccer accessible to schools.

How drone soccer works

“It’s the first drone program I’ve seen that is based in teamwork,” Sanders told Military Times, explaining the sport’s appeal. “It’s spectator-friendly and it can be an on-ramp for students into science and technology.”

Drone soccer involves two teams made up of three to five people each. The two teams face off in a 10′ x 20′ netted airfield, with each team member navigating their own drone.

One player per team navigates the specially-marked “Striker” drone to score through the other teams goal. The other players work to block either the Striker or opposing drones with full-contact collisions. The drones have a plastic exoskeleton that make them able to sustain hits from opponents.

The game has a triad of three minute periods and team members must be able to repair their drones on the fly (literally) to continue the game. While playing, students learn real-world skills that translate into different career fields including aviation and aerospace, according to Sanders.

Making play possible for all

Originally built for the military, drones have now become common in the commercial and educational field. However, they still are quite expensive, with prices ranging anywhere from under $100 for a beginner drone to over $1000 for a professional-grade drone.

The cost of sturdy racing drones often proves to be a barrier to students and schools that do not have the resources to build up their robotics clubs. A major part of drone soccer is its affordability, according to Sanders.

“We’re not repurposing toy drones,” Sanders said, explaining how some other programs handle the high cost. He said that these drones are high-performance racing drones that are custom-built and stripped down the essentials.

Additionally, drone soccer balls total out at $179 for an individual ball. Adding in the necessary support equipment brings the total to around $450. This makes them more accessible, less expensive and perfect for students to get their feet wet in the STEM field.

Beyond cost, the sport also makes it possible for everyone to take a shot at the STEM field. It caters to all ages and athletic abilities, including those with disabilities.

North America’s first tournament

Americans no longer have to sit on the sidelines as they wait for the South Korea-born sport to come to the United States.

July 31 to Aug. 1, the first drone soccer tournament is coming to North America. Students will now get their turn to score at the Rocky Mountain State Games in Colorado Springs, Colo. The drone soccer events will take place at Coronado High School, the home of the first academic drone soccer program in North America.

Service members, spouses and their dependents can also get in on the fun at the Rocky Mountain State Games with a special discount. Through its Military Support Program, eligible entrants can get a 50% discount off the normal registration fees for the drone soccer tournament (as well as other select sports).

U.S. Drone Soccer has partnered with Wings Over the Rockies Air & Space Museum to put on the tournament, as well as summer camps and training programs this summer leading up to the games.

While there isn’t an exact count yet of how many schools and students will be in attendance, Sanders said Colorado has a large drone racing community. He is expecting both students and adults to join together for the fun of the tournament.