FORCES creates new travel program supporting academics, research and students

Gettysburg Battlefield is a highlight of a travel-to-learn opportunity planned by CLA’s FORCES. (Getty Images)

We are pleased to announce the Purdue FORCES’ newest outreach enterprise: TOURS de FORCES (pun intended). The program provides travel-to-learn opportunities for Purdue friends and family, and also supports the university’s academic and research missions, FORCES’ work, and student fellowships and scholarships.

Conceived and organized by FORCES Operation Director Rob Kirchubel, PhD, TOURS de FORCES enables you to join us as we visit sites of historical significance, especially touching on the twin, and often intersecting, subjects of military history and technology. Tours will visit locales that are sure to captivate anyone interested in these topics. Led by Purdue faculty, staff, and external subject matter experts of national or international renown, each tour will combine learning and fun, and last from a couple days to two weeks.  

As of summer 2020, TOURS de FORCES plans include visits to: 

  • Entry-Level World War II: The National WWII Museum in New Orleans (Jan. 13-15, 2021) 
  • America —and Purdue—in Space: Florida’s Space Coast (early February 2021) 
  • Machines of War: World War I and II in Britain and France (late May 2021) 
  • Revolutionary Turning Points: The Revolutionary War Tour in the northeast U.S. (mid-June 2021) 
  • America Threatened as Never Before…or Since: A Civil War tour of greater Washington, DC and Richmond, VA (Fall 2021)  

Specific details will depend on the state of COVID-19 at the locales we intend to visit.

Travel, accommodations, meals, guides, and fees are covered by the cost of the tour. Specific information and detailed tour itineraries will appear as departure dates approach. Most days we will stop at two or three points of interest, with evenings free; longer tours include one or more unstructured days as well. A critical feature of TOURS de FORCES is that your participation will help fund Purdue’s academic and research missions, the work of FORCES, and student fellowships and scholarships.

For more information and tour destinations, contact visit the initiative’s website or contact Professor Kirchubel at forces@purdue.edu.