The United States Air Force Academy (USAFA) is a United States service academy in El Paso County, 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 65 years ago 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.
The Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC) is a military decoration of the United States Armed Forces. The medal was established on July 2, 1926, and is currently awarded to any persons who, after April 6, 1917, distinguish themselves by single acts of heroism or extraordinary achievement while participating in aerial flight. Both heroism and extraordinary achievement are entirely distinctive, involving operations that are not routine. The medal may be awarded to friendly foreign military members in ranks equivalent to the U.S. paygrade of O-6 and below in combat in support operations.
Officer Training School (OTS) is a United States Air Force and United States Space Force commissioning program located at Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, Alabama.
John Michael Loh is a retired four-star general in the United States Air Force (USAF) who last served as Commander, Air Combat Command from June 1992 to July 1995. His other four-star assignment include being the 24th Vice Chief of Staff of the Air Force from June 1990 to March 1991, and Commander, Tactical Air Command from March 1991 to June 1992.
Nicole Margaret Ellingwood Malachowski is a retired United States Air Force (USAF) officer and the first female pilot selected to fly as part of the USAF Air Demonstration Squadron, better known as the Thunderbirds. She later became a speaker and advocate on behalf of patients with tick-borne illnesses.
John Rives Dallager is a retired United States Air Force major general. He served as the fifteenth Superintendent of the United States Air Force Academy from 2000 to 2003. He resigned the position in the wake of the sexual assault scandal at the academy and was demoted from the rank of lieutenant general to major general upon his retirement.
Jeffrey S. Feinstein is a retired career officer of the United States Air Force (USAF). During the Vietnam War, Feinstein was a weapon systems officer, an integral part of two-man aircrews with the emergence of air-to-air missiles as the primary weapons during aerial combat. Flying aboard F-4 Phantom IIs, Feinstein downed five enemy aircraft, thereby becoming a flying ace, the last of five U.S. aviators to become aces during that conflict and to date still the most recent aviator to achieve ace status in the U.S. military.
Lieutenant General Charles R. Hamm is a retired United States Air Force (USAF) lieutenant general who served as the eleventh Superintendent of the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs.
Winfield Wayne Scott Jr. was the tenth Superintendent of the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado. Thereafter, he was appointed Superintendent of the New Mexico Military Institute, a public military high school and junior college that is supported by the State of New Mexico, located in Roswell, New Mexico.
Robert E. Kelley was a United States Air Force lieutenant general, the ninth Superintendent of the U.S. Air Force Academy. He retired as a lieutenant general on September 1, 1986.
Lieutenant General Albert Patton Clark was the sixth superintendent of the United States Air Force Academy near Colorado Springs, Colorado.
Leroy Joseph Manor was a United States Air Force Lieutenant General who began his career serving as a P-47 fighter pilot in World War II, and in numerous command positions during the Vietnam War era. General Manor is perhaps best known as the task force commander of Operation Ivory Coast, a special forces raid on the prisoner of war camp at Son Tay, Vietnam on November 21, 1970.
The Commandant of Cadets at the United States Air Force Academy is the officer in charge of the Cadet Wing. Under the Superintendent, the Commandant oversees all of the cadets' military training at the academy. The position of Commandant has traditionally been filled by an active duty Air Force brigadier general, although occasionally, the office holder has been a major general. Since reorganization from October 1994 through August 2006, the Commandant was "dual-hatted" as the commander of the 34th Training Wing. In August 2006, the 34th Wing was redesignated Commandant of Cadets, a named organization.
Hispanics in the United States Air Force can trace their tradition of service back to the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF), the military aviation arm of the United States Army during and immediately after World War II. The USAAF was the predecessor of the United States Air Force, which was formed as a separate branch of the military on September 18, 1947, under the National Security Act of 1947. In the U.S., the term Hispanic categorizes any citizen or resident of the United States, of any racial background, of any country, and of any religion, who has at least one ancestor from the people of Spain or is of non-Hispanic origin but has an ancestor from Mexico, Puerto Rico, Cuba, Central or South America, or some other Hispanic origin. The three largest Hispanic groups in the United States are the Mexican-Americans, Puerto Ricans, and Cubans. According to the U.S. Census Bureau the estimated Hispanic population of the United States is over 50 million, or 16% of the U.S. population, and Hispanics are the nation's largest ethnic minority. The 2010 U.S. census estimate of over 50 million Hispanics in the U.S. does not include the 3.9 million residents of Puerto Rico, thereby making the people of Hispanic origin the nation's largest ethnic or race minority as of July 1, 2005.
James Donald Hughes was a lieutenant general in the United States Air Force (USAF) who was commander in chief, Pacific Air Forces, with headquarters at Hickam Air Force Base, Hawaii. He commanded the air component of the unified Pacific Command with an overall mission of planning, conducting, controlling and coordinating offensive and defensive air operations.
John Lorin Borling is a retired major general of the United States Air Force whose military career spanned 33 years. He has piloted many aircraft including the F-15, F16, F-4, the SR-71 Blackbird, the U-2, and B-52 and B-1 bombers. During the Vietnam War, his aircraft was shot down and he spent 6½ years as a prisoner of war in Hanoi.
Edward Randolph "Randy" Jayne II is an American retired government official, business executive, military officer, and combat pilot. During his career, he worked in the defense industry and served in the White House Office under three successive United States presidents. Prior to his business career, Jayne spent over ten years on active duty in the United States Air Force, including two tours as a fighter pilot in Southeast Asia. Jayne served in the Air National Guard and retiring after 34 years of service as a major general. From 2015 to 2017, he was chairman of the board of the US Air Force Academy Foundation, the fundraising organization for that institution. In 2019, Jayne was named an Outstanding Graduate of the United States Air Force Academy, an honor bestowed as of that time on 41 alumni over the more than sixty years of the Academy's existence.
