United States Air Force Academy
The United States Air Force Academy is a United States service academy in Air Force Academy, Colorado, immediately north of Colorado Springs. It educates cadets for service in the officer corps of the United States Air Force and United States Space Force. It is the youngest of the five service academies, having graduated its first class in 1959, but is the third in seniority. Graduates of the academy's four-year program receive a Bachelor of Science degree and are commissioned as second lieutenants in the U.S. Air Force or U.S. Space Force. The academy is also one of the largest tourist attractions in Colorado, attracting approximately a million visitors each year.
Admission is competitive, with nominations divided equally among Congressional districts. Recent incoming classes have had about 1,200 cadets; since 2012, around 20% of each incoming class does not graduate. During their tenure at the academy, cadets receive tuition, room and board, and a monthly stipend all paid for by the Air Force. On the first day of a cadet's second class year, cadets commit to serving a number of years as a commissioned officer in the Air Force or Space Force. Non-graduates after that point are expected to fulfill their obligations in enlisted service or pay back full tuition. The commitment is normally five years of active duty and three years in the reserves, although it has varied depending on the graduate's Air Force Specialty Code or .
History
Establishment
Air power advocates had pushed for a separate Air Force Academy to complement the U.S. Military Academy and Naval Academy almost since the dawn of military aviation. In 1918, Lieutenant Colonel A.J. Hanlon wrote, "As the Military and Naval Academies are the backbone of the Army and Navy, so must the Aeronautical Academy be the backbone of the Air Service. No service can flourish without some such institution to inculcate into its embryonic officers love of country, proper conception of duty, and highest regard for honor." Other officials expressed similar sentiments. In 1919, Representative Charles F. Curry introduced legislation providing for an Academy, but concerns about cost, curriculum and location led to its demise. In 1925, air power pioneer General Billy Mitchell testified on Capitol Hill that it was necessary "to have an air academy to form a basis for the permanent backbone of your air service and to attend to the... organizational part of it, very much the same way that West Point does for the Army, or that Annapolis does for the Navy." Mitchell's arguments did not gain traction with legislators, and it was not until the late 1940s that the concept of the United States Air Force Academy began to take shape.Support for an air academy got a boost with the National Security Act of 1947, which provided for the establishment of a separate air force within the United States military. As an initial measure, Secretary of the Air Force W. Stuart Symington negotiated an agreement where up to a quarter of West Point and Annapolis graduates could volunteer to receive their commissions in the newly established Air Force. This was only intended to be a short-term fix, however, and disagreements between the services quickly led to the establishment of the Service Academy Board by Secretary of Defense James Forrestal. In January 1950, the Service Academy Board, headed by Dwight D. Eisenhower, then president of Columbia University, concluded that the needs of the Air Force could not be met by the two existing U.S. service academies and that an air force academy should be established.
Following the recommendation of the board, Congress passed legislation in 1954 to begin the construction of the Air Force Academy, and President Eisenhower signed it into law on 1 April of that year. The legislation established an advisory commission to determine the site of the new school. Among the panel members were Charles Lindbergh, General Carl Spaatz, and Lieutenant General Hubert R. Harmon, who later became the academy's first superintendent. The original 582 sites considered were winnowed to three: Alton, Illinois ; Lake Geneva, Wisconsin ; and the ultimate site at Colorado Springs, Colorado. The Secretary of the Air Force, Harold E. Talbott, announced the winning site on 24 June 1954. Meanwhile, Air Training Command began developing a detailed curriculum for the academy program.
From 1954 to 1956, the new Colorado Land Acquisition Commission purchased parcels of land that would host the new academy. The first parcel purchased was also the largest; it was the Cathedral Rock Ranch, owned by Lawrence B. Lehman of the Lehman investment family. The purchase price was $300,000, or about $65 per. 140 parcels were eventually purchased to create what is now a nearly- government property.
Early years
Early Air Force Academy leaders could look at West Point and Annapolis in designing an appropriate curriculum, faculty, and campus. The academy's permanent site had not been completed when the first class entered, so the 306 cadets from the Class of 1959 were sworn in at a temporary site at Lowry Air Force Base in Denver on 11 July 1955. While at Lowry, they were housed in renovated World War II barracks. There were no upper-class cadets to train the new cadets, so the Air Force appointed a cadre of "Air Training Officers" to conduct training. The ATOs were junior officers, many of whom were graduates of West Point, Annapolis, VMI, and The Citadel. They acted as surrogate upper-class cadets until the upper classes could be populated over the next several years. The academy's dedication ceremony took place on that first day and was broadcast live on national television, with Walter Cronkite covering the event. Arnold W. Braswell was commander of the original four cadet squadrons at the academy 1955 to 1958.In developing a distinctive uniform for cadets, the Air Force turned to Hollywood. Film director Cecil B. DeMille designed the cadet parade uniform still in use.
The Class of 1959 established many other important traditions. The first class adopted the Cadet Honor Code, and chose the falcon as the Academy's mascot. On 29 August 1958, the wing of 1,145 cadets moved to the present site near Colorado Springs, and less than a year later the academy received accreditation. The first USAFA class graduated and was commissioned on 3 June 1959.
Vietnam
The Vietnam War was the first war in which academy graduates fought and died. As such, it had a profound effect on the development of the character of the academy. Due to the need for more pilots, academy enrollment grew significantly during this time. The size of the graduating classes went from 217 cadets in 1961 to 745 cadets in 1970. Academy facilities were likewise expanded, and training was modified to better meet the needs of the wartime Air Force. The Jacks Valley field training area was added, the Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape program was expanded, and light aircraft training started in 1968.Many academy graduates of this era served with distinction in the Vietnam War. F-4 Phantom II pilot Steve Ritchie '64 and weapon systems officer Jeffrey Feinstein '68 each became aces by downing five enemy aircraft in combat. 141 graduates died in the conflict; 32 graduates became prisoners of war. Lance Sijan, '65, fell into both categories and became the first academy graduate to be awarded the Medal of Honor due to his heroism while evading capture and in captivity. Sijan Hall, one of the cadet dormitories, is named in his memory.
The effects of the anti-war movement were felt at the academy as well. Because the academy grounds are generally open to the public, the academy often became a site for protests by anti-war demonstrators.
Women at the academy
One of the most significant events in the history of the academy was the admission of women. On 7 October 1975, President Gerald R. Ford signed legislation permitting women to enter the United States service academies. On 28 June 1976, 157 women entered the Air Force Academy with the Class of 1980. Because there were no female upper class cadets, the Air Training Officer model used in the early years of the academy was revived, and fifteen young female officers were brought in to help with the integration process. The female cadets were initially segregated from the rest of the Cadet Wing but were fully integrated into their assigned squadrons after their first semester. On 28 May 1980, 97 of the original female cadets completed the program and graduated from the academy—just over 10% of the graduating class. Women have made up just over 20% of the most recent classes, with the class of 2016 having the highest proportion of any class, 25%.Many of the women from those early classes went on to achieve success within the Cadet Wing and after graduation. Despite these successes, integration issues were long apparent. Female cadets have had consistently higher dropout rates than men and have left the Air Force in higher numbers than men.
Recent history
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the academy graduated the Class of 2020 six weeks early. This was the first time that any USAFA class was ever commissioned early, and the first time for any military academy since the Vietnam War. This was also the first time that cadets were commissioned into the U.S. Space Force, with General Jay Raymond administering the oath of office to 86 graduates.The US Space Force established its first unit at the academy when Detachment 1 of Space Delta 13 was activated in November 2021. It is expected that approximately 10% of graduates at the academy will enter the Space Force.
In 2025, the academy dropped "educate" from its mission statement.
Campus and facilities
The campus of the academy covers on the east side of the Rampart Range of the Rocky Mountains, just north of Colorado Springs. Its elevation is normally given as above sea level, which is at the cadet area. The academy was designed by Skidmore, Owings and Merrill and lead architect Walter Netsch. SOM partner John O. Merrill moved from Chicago to a Colorado Springs field office to oversee the construction and to act as a spokesman for the project.The most controversial aspect of the SOM-designed Air Force Academy was its chapel. It was designed by SOM architect Walter Netsch, who at one point was prepared to abandon the design; but the accordion-like structure is acknowledged as an iconic symbol of the academy campus.