HERITAGE MINUTE

The Academy is home to a large number of impressive static display aircraft. In addition to those in populated areas, there is one aircraft well off the beaten path, just to the west of the Academy, that predates the others by decades.

At the age of 53, KAFA, the Academy’s Cadet radio station is still going strong!

Lots of colleges and universities have radio stations, but there is only one KAFA! ----more---- The station was the brainchild of then-Cadet John Severski, Class of ’71, and came into being only due to the perseverance and ingenuity of John, several other like-minded cadets, and a few supportive USAFA staff members. It was a classic Do-It-Yourself project, as they begged, borrowe

Gen. (Ret.) Steve Lorenz graduated from the U.S. Air Force Academy in 1973 and went on to participate in some of the most impactful moments in our nation’s history. Hear a few of his stories in this edition of the Heritage Minute Special podcast with Lt. Col. (Ret.) Steve Simon ’77.

The Air Force Academy houses one of the largest permanently hung murals in the world.

One of the three sporting venues in the Cadet Field House is the 2,600-seat Cadet Ice Rink. ----more---- Like the other facilities in the huge building, it saw its first use in 1968 -- May fourth, to be precise -- when Olympic gold medal winner Peggy Fleming skated at the dedication. The primary tenant of the rink, as you might imagine, is the Falcon ice hockey team. The first game

Covering nearly five acres of terrain and encompassing three distinct sporting areas, the Cadet Field House plays host to a number of events, not all athletic in nature. The largest of the three venues, in terms of seating capacity, is Clune Arena.

The Air Force Academy’s cavernous Cadet Field House contains facilities for intercollegiate basketball, hockey, and track & field, among other sports and events. Sometimes IT’S mistakenly called Clune Arena.

The soon to become Wings of Blue jump team got its start in the spring of 1962 when a band of bootleg jumpers made their first parachute jumps as cadets.

Just to the west of the Academy airfield is the Thunderbird Overlook. It contains two interesting static display aircraft: the Fairchild Republic A-10 Thunderbolt and the Northrop T-38 Talon. ----more---- The Thunderbird Overlook was dedicated on June first, 1982, with Secretary of the Air Force Verne Orr in attendance. According to the plaque at the site, the overlook “was creat