A Picture of A B-24 Liberator Over the
Air Force Academy at Colorado, Springs.

The idea surfaced almost six decades ago, but did not become a reality until April 1, 1954, when President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the bill establishing the U.S. Air Force Academy.

 

            Many of America's pioneer airmen advocated the creation of an academy to prepare officers especially for the air service.  One of them, Brig. Gen. William "Billy" Mitchell, tried in vain to persuade first, the government, then, private interests to establish such a school.

 

            In 1948, the Air Force appointed a board of leading civilian and military educators to plan the curriculum for an Air Force academy.  The idea made little progress outside the Air Force, until 1949 when Secretary of Defense James Forrestal appointed a board of military and civilian educators.  This board headed by Dwight D. Eisenhower, then president of Columbia University, and Robert L. Stearns, president of the University of Colorado, was tasked to recommend a general system of education for the Army, Navy and Air Force.

 

            In 1950, this board found the needs of the Air Force could not be met by a desirable expansion of the older service academies. The board recommended that an Air Force academy be established without delay and proposed that, in peacetime, not less than 40 percent of the regular officers taken into each service should be academy graduates.

 

            Congress authorized creation of the Air Force Academy in 1954. Harold E. Talbott, then secretary of the Air Force, appointed a commission to assist him in selecting the permanent site. After traveling 21,000 miles and considering 580 proposed sites in 45 states, the commission recommended three locations.   From those, Secretary Talbott selected the site near Colorado Springs. The state of Colorado contributed $1 million toward the purchase of the property.

           

On July 11, 1955, the same year construction began, the first class of 306 men were sworn in at a temporary site at Lowry Air Force Base, Denver. Lt. Gen. Hubert R. Harmon, a key figure in the development of the Academy since 1949, was recalled from retirement to become the first superintendent.

 

Two years later, Maj. Gen. Briggs took over as the Academy's second superintendent. During his tour, on Aug. 29, 1958, the wing of 1,145 cadets moved to its present site from Denver. Less than a year later the Academy received accreditation.  On March 3, 1964, the authorized strength of the Cadet Wing was increased to 4,417 and later reduced to its present number of 4,000.

           

            Perhaps the most controversial event in academy history was the admission of women. President Gerald R. Ford signed legislation Oct. 7, 1975, permitting women to enter the nation's military academies.  Women entered the Air Force Academy for the first time on June 28, 1976.  The first class with women graduated in May 1980.