One Book, One USAFA
Revisions are intended to strengthen the connection between the book selected and the Academy’s priorities, institutional outcomes, and goal of generating air and space-minded leaders. All books prior to this year’s selection (2025) have been removed from the webpage.
Since 2020, the U.S. Air Force Academy has welcomed incoming cadets with its common reading program, One Book, One USAFA. Each year’s One Book selection connects cadets, faculty, and staff to themes of relevance to developing leaders as well as to essential skills that help cadets succeed at the Academy and beyond. Book selections support the Academy’s institutional outcomes and align with the Academy’s priorities of:
- Warfighters to Win
- Leaders of Characters and Quality
- Critical Thinkers to Adapt
The Dean of Faculty selects each year’s book to connect each incoming class with timely concepts, enhancing the shared cadet experience of the Academy’s rigorous military, academic, athletic, and character development program. The program extends beyond the fourth class to integrated engagement across the Academy, including in academic curriculum, squadron conversation, guest speaker lectures, and broader access to the book by the program reminds cadets that even as they seek excellence in military training, academic development, and athletic competition, each future officer also hones their approach to leadership, character, and mental resilience in space of personal reflection.
Orbital
by Samantha Harvey
A team of astronauts in the International Space Station collect meteorological data, conduct scientific experiments and test the limits of the human body. But mostly they observe. Together they watch their silent blue planet, circling it sixteen times, spinning past continents and cycling through seasons, taking in glaciers and deserts, the peaks of mountains and the swells of oceans. Endless shows of spectacular beauty witnessed in a single day. The fragility of human life fills their conversations, their fears, their dreams. One Book, One USAFA invites you to join the conversation as we ask what is life without earth? What is earth without humanity?