Cadets test skills at Outdoor Leadership Complex
2nd Lt. Owen Gainer jumps from the Outdoor Leadership Complex’s Leader Challenge Tower Aug. 10, 2023. The U.S. Air Force Academy Class of 1963 presented the enhanced tower to Academy Superintendent Lt. Gen. Richard Clark during a dedication ceremony. (U.S. Air Force photo by Justin Pacheco)
By Randy Roughton
U.S. Air Force Academy Strategic Communications
U.S. AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo.– U.S. Air Force Academy cadets can put into practice the leadership skills they learned in the classroom and training at the Outdoor Leadership Complex.
The 12-acre complex, part of the Center for Character and Leadership Development provides an experience-based outdoor classroom focused on the Academy’s Leader of Character Framework, said Kristina Book, the Outdoor Leadership Complex experiential-based learning manager. The complex features a 100-foot Leader Challenge Tower, now enhanced to provide next-generation multiple at-height challenges, including a simulated free-fall station, and six physical challenges at 23 and 55 feet, a climbing wall, and a non-traditional zip line. In this zip line, as participants slide away from the tower, they are lowered by an auto-belay system toward the ground. They do not slide to another platform at height or taken to where they could be lowered on a ladder as with most zip lines.
“Character comes from adversity; this tower injects adversity,” Dr. Tom Torkelson, CCLD deputy director, said at the Outdoor Leadership Complex Leader Challenge Tower dedication ceremony.
Retired Gen. Ronald Fogleman speaks at the dedication of the Leader Challenge Tower at the Outdoor Leadership Complex Aug. 10, 2023. Fogleman was the first U.S. Air Force Academy graduate to become Air Force chief of staff. (U.S. Air Force photo by Justin Pacheco)
Class of 1963 project
The tower was dedicated in honor of retired Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Ronald Fogleman. Fogleman, Class of 1963, was the first Academy graduate to become chief of staff. The Class of 1963 provided $1 million and was the lead donor for the project with funding from the Air Force Academy Foundation through the Association of Graduates’ Dorothy D. and Joseph A. Moller Foundation. Class members presented the tower to Superintendent Lt. Gen. Richard Clark while at the Academy for their 60th reunion.
“I want to say thank you for helping to prepare our cadets for the future that we need them to be ready for, to take on the challenges that the world will present to them, and most importantly, to come together as one united team to support and defend our Constitution,” Clark said. “I’m inspired to know that this structure will push them to their limits and provide invaluable growth for them as individuals, as leaders of teams, and as the people who will continue to lead our country to greatness.”
The Outdoor Leadership Complex’s Leader Challenge Tower offers 12 obstacles at 23 and 55 feet, two 76-foot climbing walls, multiple climbing lines, simulated free fall from 55 feet, rappelling stations, and a non-traditional zip line. (U.S. Air Force photo by Justin Pacheco)
Enhancement to leadership training
2nd Lts. Ian Mullins and Kevin Brisker, Class of 2023 Academy graduates on casual status as they wait for their pilot training slot openings, performed demonstrations of the Leader Challenge Tower during the dedication ceremony. Both graduates said their Outdoor Leadership Complex visits as cadets enhanced the leadership skills they learned in the classroom and training.
“I like the challenge of having to trust people you don’t know,” Mullins said. “We were both athletes here and it is easy to trust guys who are on your team. But when you get on a course like this with someone you don’t know that well, you have to trust each other. It also gets you out of the classroom and allows you to develop leadership skills in a different way.”
From a ropes course to a next-generation complex
The Academy’s Outdoor Leadership Complex was originally built in 1995 as an outdoor wood-based ropes course area. As the facility grew, it was renamed the Outdoor Leadership Complex to account for the extended use beyond the ropes course structures.
Through the first two months of the summer, more than 1,700 people participated in Outdoor Leadership Complex programs. This is an increase of 300 from the summer of 2022. Cadets visit the complex at least twice, including the summer before their sophomore year, as part of their summer training programs. In two years, every current Academy cadet will have completed the tower challenge, Book said.
Team building and development
While cadets are the priority, the complex staff also conduct customized team development sessions with Academy faculty and staff, permanent party members, as well as Air and Space Force and Department of Defense groups when staffing and scheduling allow.
“There were two or three different groups that used this as a kickoff to their off-site [training],” Book said. “They do programs with us in the morning to start the conversation and they utilize the rest of the day to do a more traditional off-site. They’ve given us feedback that what we did in the morning allowed the conversation to be more genuine and more about finding that connection that began here. So, they’re more likely to continue talking.”
About 5,000 people participate in more than 125 programs a year, Book said. Before a visit to the Outdoor Leadership Complex, staff members ask questions about the people in the group, the group’s recent challenges and successes, and how they want to improve. The Experiential-Based Learning team assigned to the group uses the information to build a specifically designed program to meet the group’s outcomes. The idea is to start communication and identify needed areas of team growth that people in the group will continue in their organizations’ off-site workstations.
“The Outdoor Leadership Complex’s Leader Challenge Tower will be a standout for any cadet at the Academy for generations to come,” Book said. “We aren’t just developing Airmen; we are developing leaders of character in service to our nation.”
2nd Lt. Adam Masters helps 2nd Lt. Catherine Grebe during a demonstration of the Leader Challenge Tower at the Outdoor Leadership Complex Aug. 10, 2023. Both lieutenants are on casual status after graduating from the U.S. Air Force Academy in June.
See more photos of the Outdoor Leadership Complex Leader Challenge Tower Dedication at Flickr.