CHENGDU, July 23, 2008 -- Eighteen students from quake-hit Sichuan Province were recruited by China's air force as pilot cadets here on Wednesday.

The air force has made several preferential policies on enrollment of quake-affected students who sat the national college entrance exams weeks later than their peers in other areas of the country. The preferential policies cover no limit for the number of recruitment, no tests during recruitment, and providing fund for newly-recruited pilot cadets to fly for registration at school.

"I want to express my gratitude for the government from the bottom of my heart," said Zhou Jiao, one of the pilot cadets, who is from Dujiangyan, Sichuan Province.

Sui Guosheng, a recruitment official with the air force revealed that more than 10,000 senior high school students from quake hit areas signed up for the air force recruitment this year,70 of whom are from Sichuan.

The 18 recruited pilot cadets are from Sichuan.

From July 3 to 5, a total of 120,000 students in areas hit by the May 12 earthquake took their national college entrance exams, weeks after their peers elsewhere in the nation took the crucial test.