News
Sumner's Hawkins wins at Mountain West Conference Championship
SAN DIEGO, Calif. - Senior Olivia Korte (discus throw), junior Kevin Hawkins (800-meter run) and freshman Nick Frawley (pole vault) each picked up conference titles, as the Air Force track and field team wrapped up competition at the Mountain West Conference Championships on Saturday, May 12, in San Diego, Calif. The Falcons picked up 10 all-conference honors today, as the men and women finished third and seventh, respectively.
Hawkins crossed the finish line of the 800-meter run in 1:50.66 to earn his second career conference title. Hawkins, who also won the 800-meter title at the indoor meet in February, became the Falcons' first outdoor champion in this event since 1994 and only the second in Academy history. Payne, Hawkins, Picou and Luina also earned a fifth-place finish in the 4x400-meter relay with a time of 3:15.38.
Air Force Grads Ready to Embrace Mission -- from USA Today 5/25
As Briana Thomas weighed whether to enroll at the Air Force Academy in 2001, she remembers thinking the war in Afghanistan would be over by the time she graduated.
Now, as graduation looms, Thomas, 22, wonders how she'll respond if she's sent to Iraq or Afghanistan.
"I'm OK with it now," says Thomas, of Grass Valley, Calif.
"It's not something I would love to do. But I'm prepared for it now, and I've accepted it. It was something I grew into."
Thomas' next stop: Japan, where she'll be involved in missile and munitions maintenance.
As someone who considers herself "a peaceful person," Felisa Hervey acknowledges that attending the Air Force Academy was not an obvious choice.
"The academy really has a foundation of selflessness," says Hervey, 22. "You're willing to give up your life for somebody — somebody you may not even like. Plus, you get to jump out of airplanes."
Hervey, from Pasadena, Calif., left the Air Force Academy in 2003 to volunteer for nine months at an orphanage in war-ravaged Kabul, Afghanistan. She says she viewed it as a way to serve God and country. Ultimately, she says she'd like to be involved in diplomacy.
For Jacob Ashmore, the Air Force Academy allows him to pursue the dream he's had since he was 8 years old: to become an astronaut.
The Sept. 11 terrorist attacks convinced Ashmore that he'd picked the right school. Ashmore, 22, of Ferndale, Mich., hopes to become a fighter pilot.
"The events of Sept. 11 affirmed my decision to go into the military," he says. "Seeing our nation respond to Sept. 11, I wanted to be a part of that."
Ashmore comes from a family of 10, including brother Jonathan in the Marine Corps.
His mother, Patti Ashmore, 51, says her sons and her husband, Jeff, talked about the family's Christian beliefs when they decided to join the military.
USA Today Article
Hennings named to college football Hall of Fame
Former Air Force great Chad Hennings received one of the highest honors a college football player can earn Tuesday, as he was elected into the College Football Hall of Fame Division I-A class. Hennings is one of 13 players and two coaches to be selected to the Hall of Fame from a ballot of 77 candidates and a pool of hundreds of eligible nominees, according to Ron Johnson, chairman of the National Football Foundation & College Hall of Fame.
Hennings, a 1988 graduate of the Academy, is considered one of college football’s great defensive linemen of his era. A unanimous first-team All-America selection in 1987, Hennings received the Outland Trophy as the nation’s top interior lineman. A two-time first-team all-conference selection, he is a member of the Western Athletic Conference all-time team and was named WAC defensive player of the decade for the 1980s. Hennings led the nation with 24 sacks in 1987 and played in numerous post-season all-star games including the Japan Bowl and East-West Shrine Game. He is a two-time first-team academic All-American and earned academic All-WAC honors three times. Hennings also received the Stan Bates Award as the conference’s top scholar-athlete in 1987.
Although he was drafted by the Dallas Cowboys in the 1988 NFL Draft, Hennings fulfilled a four-year military commitment, serving during the first Gulf War. In 1992, he rejoined the Cowboys and embarked on a nine-year NFL career that brought him three Super Bowl titles.
"If anyone ever lived the core values of the Academy and the Air Force to the limit, it’s Chad. The epitome of integrity, service and excellence, he fulfilled his commitment to the Air Force as an A-10 pilot in Desert Storm, was given the opportunity to fulfill his Academy commitment early, and only then opted to give the NFL a try. The rest is history, but Chad never forgot his roots here," said Dr. Hans Mueh, athletics director at the Academy and a member of the academic faculty at the Academy while Hennings was a cadet. "He continues to support us as a role model to our cadets and the Air Force and he is a strong supporter of the athletic program. This honor is well-deserved, but Chad will be humble in his acceptance and give credit to others for recognition he so clearly earned. I’m honored to know him and proud to call him a friend."
Free SAT/ACT Software for Military Families
In association with the Department of Defense (DoD), eKnowledge LLC announces that a group of NFL, NFL Europe, AFL and CFL football players, represented through the Victory Sports Group Agency, is donating several million dollars worth of SAT and ACT test prep programs valued at $199 each to families in the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force and Coast Guard for the school year 2005-2006. Through this sponsorship, active duty, National Guard, Reserve, and retired military personnel can obtain eKnowledge's $199 SAT/ACT Standard Power Prep program(s) and the $199 fee is waived. Families who request the program(s) pay only shipping & handling costs associated with the request. Servicemembers may request as many programs as they need for the students in their lives.
To facilitate ordering, DoD has created a secure website through its
Military Homefront site to quickly verify a person's military status before linking them to the software ordering site.
Programs ship to domestic U.S. addresses and APO addresses. The sponsorship covers the regular purchase price of $199 and the family pays only the shipping and handling. The programs have a one-year license and are intended for the sole individual use of students on their personal home or laptop computer and are not intended for group or classroom instruction through the schools.
New Superintendent
President George Bush has nominated Lt. Gen. John F. Regni, '73, to be the next superintendent of the United States Air Force Academy. General Regni is currently the commander of Air University at Maxwell AFB, Ala.
Lt. Gen. Regni's biography.
