March 12, 2022

Sully returns with lessons for cadets

From left to right: Cadet Keane Singleton, Cadet Maria Norman, Ambassador Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger, Cadet Connor Portlock, and Cadet Garrett Dean. Sullenberger receives a soaring instructor patch from the 94th Flying Training Squadron (FTS) in the Davis Airfield hangar at the U.S. Air Force Academy, Colo., on Friday, Feb. 25, 2022. By Rachelle Stoll, Strategic Communications Photos by Joshua Armstrong. Ambassador Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger returned to the United States Air Force Academy’s Davis Airfield, Feb. 25, 2022, to connect with four aviation program cadet leaders while answering their questions about his time at the Academy. A 1973 Academy graduate and...

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March 11, 2022

AF Academy’s top former enlisted role model for cadets retires

Retired Chief Master Sgt. Bob Vasquez encourages basic cadets during a drill at the U.S. Air Force Academy. Vasquez retired from his position as the Cadet Wing’s curriculum branch manager, Feb. 28, 2022 and worked with cadets for 20 years after retiring from active duty in 2002. (U.S. Air Force Academy photo) By Julie Imada, Center for Character and Leadership Development U.S. AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo. - A former chief master sergeant popular at the Air Force Academy, retired from his position as the Cadet wing’s curriculum branch manager, Feb. 28. Bob Vasquez took on several roles at the Academy...

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March 7, 2022

Five life and innovation hacks from a cadet inventor

By Rachelle Stoll, Strategic Communications Photos by Josh Armstrong Cadet Schlichting stands in front of the United States Air Force Academy’s aeronautics laboratory. Cadet First Class Grant Schlichting, a senior at the United States Air Force Academy, holds a patent-pending for a device that will change how we fight the wars to come. Schlichting is the creator of the Aerial Tow Rehookup (ATR), an invention with a provisional patent under the US Patent and Trademark Office. The ATR involves the utilization of a military cargo plane to tow multiple aircraft at any given time, from the smallest of unmanned drones...

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March 1, 2022

Wing Open Boxing Championships: Your questions answered

Cadet Don Angelo Piasecki lands a punch onto Cadet Will Winstead in the 132-pound men’s weight class during the 2021 Wing Open Boxing Championships. By Rachelle Stoll, Strategic Communications Cadets and boxing fans are convening under the bright lights of Clune Arena for the 64th annual Wing Open Boxing Championships on March 4, 2022 at 7 p.m. This year’s competition will be open to the public. Below is a run-down on this storied championship and your guide to boxing at the U.S. Air Force Academy. 1. What is the Wing Open? Since 1958, cadets from all forty squadrons have been...

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February 16, 2022

Getting cadets to graduation: A senior NCO speaks out on his special duty as an academy military trainer

Master Sgt. Brian Kelsey, an academy military trainer at the Air Force Academy, is shown here in his Vandenberg Hall office. Story by Ray Bowden, Photo by Trevor Cokley U.S. AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo. - If you’re assigned to cadet squadron 12 at the Air Force Academy and need advice, talk to Master Sgt. Brian Kelsey. If you want to chat about skiing, rock climbing, his four children or woodworking, he’s good with that, too. Kelsey is the squadron’s lead academy military trainer, one of more than 100 enlisted airmen leading, training and serving as military role models for the school’s...

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February 8, 2022

Want to fly without being a pilot? Here’s how.

1st Lt. Abraham Eaton goes inverted on a T-38 test flight. Photo courtesy 1st Lt. Abraham Eaton. By Rachelle Stoll, Strategic Communications. Did you know the Air Force Academy is a pipeline for the Air Force Test Pilot School? The process has been recently been optimized and two former cadets share their experiences with TPS and tell us how the Academy prepared them for success. 1st Lt. Abraham Eaton recalls getting motion sickness on playground swings as a young child, but that never kept him from wanting to fly. Once he became a cadet at the Air Force Academy, he found...

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December 22, 2021

Air Force Academy grad embraces new NASA role, future of spaceflight

Kelvin Manning was named deputy director at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center after serving as the Florida spaceport’s associate director for more than a decade. (NASA photo/Kim Shifle) Story by Jim Cawley, NASA’s Kennedy Space Center public Affairs   KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. -- Kelvin Manning has served in several critical roles in his nearly 30 years at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. He was the Florida spaceport’s associate director for more than a decade. He also held multiple key positions within the Space Shuttle Program, was the first division chief for the agency’s Orion spacecraft, and served on the last three NASA...

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December 14, 2021

Cadet & faculty arts journal ignites creativity in a year of upheaval

By Rachelle Stoll, Strategic Communications  Photo by Justin Pacheco   The global pandemic shifted life dramatically for all of us. As lock downs and wide-spread quarantines began in 2020, building blocks of our daily lives came abruptly to a halt. Children stayed home, away from the familiarity and routine of their classrooms, playgrounds, and after-school activities. Workers—or those of us whose jobs allowed us to—shifted to working from home, dismantling American work culture, relegating communication with bosses and co-workers to screens and e-mails.   The Cadet Wing here at the Air Force Academy, along with faculty and staff, dealt with its own specific set of circumstances at the onset of the pandemic. The Academy, an institution whose training and effectiveness...

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December 10, 2021

Aeronautics cadets, faculty celebrate high-tech aerospace lab upgrades

Lt. Gen. Richard Clark, U.S. Air Force Academy superintendent, and Cadet 1st Class Justin Yates cut a ribbon to celebrate the installation of two new flight simulators and a shock combustion tube in the school's aerospace laboratory, Dec. 7, 2021.   Story by Ray Bowden, all photos by Justin Pacheco U.S. AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo. - Cadets researching aeronautics at the Air Force Academy showed off two newly installed $2.2 million simulators and a $1 million combustion shock tube used for hydrocarbon combustion experiments, Dec. 7 Lab director Lt. Col. Judson Babcock said cadets use the Merlin P521 engineering flight simulators...

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November 19, 2021

Combustion shock tube provides shockingly fun research opportunities for cadets

  By Rachelle Stoll, Strategic Communications, Photo by Joshua Armstrong, Video by AJ Kievenaar Cadet First Class Kendra Middleton has always been fascinated with flight. Some of her earliest memories are of her grandfather, who built and flew his own planes alongside a ragtag gang of “little old men who would fly into each other’s back yards.” Kendra’s mother is also an aerospace engineer with a degree from University of Colorado Boulder. Having been born into a family of aviators, combined with a love for science and math, the Air Force Academy seemed a fitting place for Kendra. The culture...

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