Black Hills State University (BHSU) will host a dedication ceremony for a historical marker celebrating the 93rd College Training Detachment, a World War II-era program that trained aviation cadets on campus, at 1 p.m., Friday, June 20.
The event will begin in the Crow Peak Conference Room in the Student Union, where BHSU alumnus Paul Higbee and Terry Neil King, the son of one of the detachment’s commanding officers, will deliver an educational program on the history of the detachment. The event will then move to the marker, which was installed in November of last year in Veterans Park on University Street.
During World War II, the U.S. Military established 150 College Training Detachments to meet the unique requirements of aviation training. In addition to their military experience, candidates were required to have at least two years of university education. Black Hills State University, then called Black Hills Teachers College, provided candidates with a hybrid education that included both typical college coursework and flying instruction. It was the only institution in South Dakota chosen to host a detachment. The 93rd College Training Detachment was deactivated in the Spring of 1944, by which time it had trained over 1,000 cadets.
“Black Hills Teachers College and the town of Spearfish were very proud to host the 93rd, but this chapter in our local history had been largely forgotten,” said Lori Terrill, university archivist at BHSU. “This marker will ensure that does not happen again.”
For questions, contact Lori Terrill at Lori.Terrill@BHSU.edu