Air Force Academy

In 1954, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed legislation that formally established the Air Force Academy. One year later, the school—setting up a temporary home at Denver's Lowry Air Force Base—swore in its first class of 306 cadets. Since its founding, the academy has provided students with the academic, military, and physical training required to become Air Force officers. Its high academic and military standards, combined with its connection to aviation, made the academy a popular addition to the national military education system, a role it continues to play in the 21st century.

The United States created an independent Air Force in 1947, which served as a driving force behind the creation of an Air Force Academy. In 1949 Secretary of Defense James Forrestal appointed Eisenhower, then president of Columbia University, and University of Colorado President Robert Stearns to a commission tasked with studying the future of the nation's military service academies. Whereas Air Force officers had previously received their education from the Military Academy at West Point, New York, the board concluded that the United States should train students interested in a career in the Air Force at a separate academy.

The Korean War temporarily absorbed the funds needed to build the academy but planning continued apace, even during the delay. The Air Force Academy Planning Board, headed by Lt. Gen. Hubert Harmon, who would also become the Air Force Academy's first superintendent, developed a plan for the academy's curriculum in consultation with academics from Columbia, Stanford, and Purdue Universities, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Because the traditions of the Air Force were closely linked to those of the Army, the Air Force Academy's initial curriculum and faculty closely mirrored those of the Military Academy at West Point. Most instructors were either graduates of West Point or had served on its faculty. Like West Point, the curriculum designed for the Air Force Academy offered no electives, set a goal of 12 students per class, and challenged students across a wide variety of academic disciplines.

Another committee, with members that included Gen. Carl Spaatz and aviator Charles Lindbergh, assumed the task of selecting the site for the academy. The committee narrowed the site for the academy to Alton, Illinois; Lake Geneva, Wisconsin; and Colorado Springs, Colorado. In June 1954, the Department of the Air Force chose Colorado Springs because of the area's longstanding military traditions and the availability of land; Colorado Springs was home to Ent Air Force Base and Fort Carson, and the site offered more than 18,000 acres of former cattle ranches set in the foothills of the Rampart Range of the Rocky Mountains. The academy's first students at the Colorado Springs campus arrived in 1958. The new academy soon boasted two dormitories, an architecturally innovative chapel with facilities for several religions, a library, classroom facilities, and state-ofthe-art athletic facilities.

The Air Force Academy inherited its command structure and basic organization from West Point. A lieutenant general serves as superintendent with brigadier generals serving as academic dean and commandant of cadets. Colonels serve as heads of the academic departments and as director of athletics. The department heads, titled Permanent Professors, normally retain their positions for the duration of their military careers. The faculty initially consisted exclusively of military officers with masters and doctorates who served for fixed three-year tours of duty. A military captain or major, titled Air Officer Commanding, [Page 23]headed each of the 40 (later 36) cadet squadrons, which formed the basic military and social unit of the academy.

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