In 2016, students at Kent State University (KSU) were invited to participate in the Midwest High-Power Rocket Competition, an annual design competition hosted by the Minnesota Space Grant Consortium. Having little to no knowledge of high-power model rocketry, this group of college students petitioned the college to sponsor a team. Upon receiving dean approval, the group of students needed to organize, delineate responsibilities, secure funding, design and build a rocket, perform flight tests, conduct outreach, establish safety protocols, document their work, travel and compete in the competition. Moreover, they needed to accomplish all this within six months and outside of the normal classroom environment. The group consisted of students from a variety of majors to include aerospace engineering, aeronautical systems engineering technology, mechanical engineering technology, and flight technology. Among these were three former active-duty or national guard veterans. The literature already documents the attributes of student veterans in terms of their potential within the engineering community. This paper describes the design competition and documents the actions of the team through the student design process. It then describes the veterans' roles and integration in the project, specifically how their veteran experiences directly influenced the team's success. Finally, it describes these veterans' impact on model rocketry at the institution as a whole and their legacy in subsequent competition teams.
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