HERITAGE MINUTE

During his days as a cadet, Col. (Retired) Jim Moschgat ’77 made a remarkable discovery: one of the Academy’s janitors was a Medal of Honor recipient. Listen now to hear the amazing story of William Crawford.

The Heritage Minute Channel is a production of the Long Blue Line Podcast Network and presented by the U.S. Air Force Academy Association and Foundation

Traveling around the 18,500-acre Air Force Academy campus, one can see breathtaking natural scenery, modern architecture, and tributes to Air Force and Academy pioneers.  ----more----

There is a place that features all of these attributes:  the Academy Cemetery.  Nestled amid pine trees east of the Cadet Area, the 100-acre facility is the final resting place for nearly 2,000 individuals.  The burial ground dates back to the earliest days of the Academy’s existence at the permanent site.  On 22 September 1958, less than a month after the cadets moved down from their temporary home at Lowry Air Force Base in Denver, General Order Number 32 established the United States Air Force Academy Cemetery.  Less than a week later, on 28 September, the initial funeral was held.  Appropriately, that ceremony honored Lieutenant General Hubert Harmon.  Sadly, the Academy’s first Superintendent had not survived to see the Class of ’59, USAFA’s first class, graduate.  On 22 February 1957, he had passed away at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas, due to cancer.  The entire Cadet Wing, as well as the Academy staff and hundreds of relatives and friends, participated in the ceremony.  It was the first occasion on which the Cadet Wing wore the all-white parade uniform designed by pioneering Hollywood movie director and producer Cecil B. DeMille.

The Heritage Minute Channel is a production of the Long Blue Line Podcast Network and presented by the U.S. Air Force Academy Association and Foundation

April 1, 1954 is the day President Dwight D. Eisenhower shook hands with then Secretary of the Air Force, Harold E. Talbott. The president had just signed legislation authorizing the establishment of the U.S. Air Force Academy. USAFA’s Founders Day has been celebrated on April 1 ever since. 

(Left Image) President Dwight D. Eisenhower (seated) shakes hands with Secretary of the Air Force Harold E. Talbott on April 1, 1954, after signing legislation authorizing the establishment of the U.S. Air Force Academy. Looking on (from left) are Congressman Carl Vinson, Georgia; Gen. Nathan F. Twining, Air Force chief of staff; Congressman Dewey Short, Missouri, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee; James H. Douglas, undersecretary of the Air Force, and Lt. Gen. Hubert R. Harmon, special assistant for the Academy.

 - (Photo courtesy U.S. Air Force Academy McDermott Library Archives)

(Right Image) The first class of Air Force Academy cadets at the Academy's first home, Lowery AFB, Denver, CO.

The Heritage Minute Channel is a production of the Long Blue Line Podcast Network and presented by the U.S. Air Force Academy Association and Foundation

In this Heritage Minute Special: Col. (Ret.) Darrel Whitcomb '69 recently led a reunion of his classmates and emceed a briefing outlining their roles during the Vietnam War. The group heard from fellow pilots, search-and-rescue team members and former POWs. Join the conversation between host Lt. Col. (Ret.) Steve Simon ’77 and Col. Whitcomb, a passionate historian and published author with a great many stories to tell.

The Heritage Minute Channel is a production of the Long Blue Line Podcast Network and presented by the U.S. Air Force Academy Association and Foundation

Located just west of the Service and Supply Area at the south end of the Academy is Ice Lake.  A century ago, it was bustling with industry.  ----more----

During the winter, this lake, and several others in the Colorado Springs-Monument area, would freeze solid.  Workers would harvest the ice using a one-handed version of the loggers saw.  The ice, cut into blocks, would be used to preserve perishable food in early-day refrigerators, appropriately called “ice boxes.”  Pioneers establishing homesteads in the area that is now the Academy included Aaron and Martha Blodgett, namesake of nearby Blodgett Peak, and David Edgerton.  Edgerton was the namesake of a town that emerged where Ice Lake is today.  The local public school district, now called Academy District 20, got its start here in 1874.  It was organized by County Superintendent Robert Douglass, whose name is tied to the Academy’s Douglass Valley.  In its early days, the school district covered 36 square miles and The Edgerton School, located near the lake, was its only school.  With the establishment of the Air Force Academy in the 1950s, the school district quadrupled in size, expanding to 130 square miles.  The town of Edgerton, however, joined several other settlements on Academy grounds that disappeared.

The Heritage Minute Channel is a production of the Long Blue Line Podcast Network and presented by the U.S. Air Force Academy Association and Foundation

In this edition of Heritage Minute Special, host Lt. Col. (Ret.) Steve Simon ’77 is holding a reunion of sorts. ----more----

His guest is a hire of his from a few years back. Meredith Harlow is the Academy’s Curator of Artifacts. Listen in as the two discuss Meredith’s background, and the work she does preserving the things at make USAFA’s history and heritage unique.

The Heritage Minute Channel is a production of the Long Blue Line Podcast Network and presented by the U.S. Air Force Academy Association and Foundation

Tucked away in the Douglass Valley woods, along the stretch of the Falcon Trail between the Community Center and Falcon Stadium is the oldest structure on the Academy and one of the oldest in the Pikes Peak region.  ----more----

This is officially called the Pioneer Cabin.  It has been known as the Capps Cabin, but in reality was built by William A. Burgess, another early settler.  Around 1870, Leonard and Mary Ann Capps established a homestead just south of where Falcon Stadium is today.  The foundation of that three-room building is still visible.  This structure, the Pioneer Cabin, was built by Burgess in 1871.  It was re-named the “Capps” cabin because, when Falcon Stadium was built in 1962, graves of the Capps family were moved to the site of the Burgess cabin from their original burial site near where the stadium’s fifty-yard line is today.  The five graves include Leonard and Mary Ann Capps.  On 29 July 1961, Academy officials, led by Colonel Edward Stealy, deputy base commander, and the Palmer Lake Historical Society dedicated the cabin, as well as the Pioneer Cemetery.  A plaque memorializing the members of the Capps family was unveiled, reading, “This cemetery symbolizes the many pioneer families who originally settled this region.”  In January 1975, the cabin was added to the National Register of Historic Places by the U.S. Department of Interior.

The Heritage Minute Channel is a production of the Long Blue Line Podcast Network and presented by the U.S. Air Force Academy Association and Foundation

In this edition of the Heritage Minute Special podcast, host Lt. Col. (Ret.) Steve Simon ‘77 is speaking with the Academy’s Command Historian, Dr. Brian Laslie.  During this conversation, we get into his love of history and how that led him to  the Academy.

The Heritage Minute Channel is a production of the Long Blue Line Podcast Network and presented by the U.S. Air Force Academy Association and Foundation

The “Gallery of Great Airmen” is an artistic gem located in the Exemplar area of Fairchild Hall.  ----more----

The large display features portraits of 68 leaders.  Included are such iconic Americans as the Wright Brothers, Amelia Earhart, General Benjamin O. Davis Junior, Bob Hope, and General Jimmy Stewart.  The Falcon Foundation donated the works of art to the Academy on 6 May 1966.  Many of the individuals immortalized here are namesakes of scholarships provided by the non-profit.  The Falcon Foundation was incorporated in Texas on 7 April 1958 as “The Mitchell Foundation.”  That name didn’t last long, however, as the heirs of General Mitchell objected to the use of his name for this purpose, and the organization was soon renamed “The Falcon Foundation.”  The organization’s primary objective is to fund civilian prep school attendance for prospective cadets who did not receive direct entry into the Academy.  The Falcon Foundation has been extraordinarily successful in this endeavor, having provided approximately 4,000 scholarships, the first three going to members of the Class of 1963.  The number of Falcon Scholars who have graduated from the Academy is approaching 3,000.  Included in that number are Bart Holaday, Class of 1965, the first Falcon Scholar to also become a Rhodes Scholar; General (Retired) William Looney, Class of 1972, the first Falcon Scholar to attain the rank of four-star general; and the two most recent past Air Force Chiefs, retired generals Mark Welsh III, Class of 1976, and David Goldfein, Class of 1983.  The Falcon Foundation’s contribution to the Academy is by no means limited to scholarships and these paintings.  Among its many other gifts to the Academy are the fifteen-foot bronze statue of an eagle on the trail between the Visitor Center and the Cadet Chapel, the Schlomo Katz paintings normally displayed in the Jewish Chapel, and General of the Air Force Henry “Hap” Arnold in front of Arnold Hall.

The Heritage Minute Channel is a production of the Long Blue Line Podcast Network and presented by the U.S. Air Force Academy Association and Foundation

Maj. (Ret.) Don Rightmyer ’73 has spent a lifetime chronicling and preserving history. Like Heritage Minute Special host, Steve Simon ’77, he has a love of history. Unlike Steve, who developed his passion for the field only about 20 years ago, Maj. Rightmyer's dates back to his days as a USAFA cadet. These kindred spirits have been drawn together by their mutual interest in history and heritage. 

The Heritage Minute Channel is a production of the Long Blue Line Podcast Network and presented by the U.S. Air Force Academy Association and Foundation