Just concluded the quarterly CAS meeting (virtual meeting only tonight due to weather), and sharing the 'hot poop' with you, with specific/formal minutes and briefing material to be provided as soon as
33 Senators attended, about average.
Feature speaker was Brig Gen Gavin Marks, Commandant of Cadets since July 2023. BG Marks is an excellent communicator and by all appearances is an earnest, open personality. He spoke for 30 minutes about his "vectors" for refining the 47 month preparation program for all cadets that he is responsible for. He then answered questions (about 20) for a half hour ranging from the DEI at USAFA to renovation of Sijan Hall to Improved Military Training to the resurrection of the Form O-96 in Mitchell Hall. I can tell you that all of his presentation points and answers to grad's (CAS) questions were well reasoned and explained. He definitely has a presence for speaking in public and I thought he demonstrated a remarkable grasp of details given that he has only been on the job for a summer and a semester.
Sidebar note: I had the chance to speak with BG Marks briefly back in Sept in Mitchell Hall at the Class of 2025 Commitment Dinner, and at that time he struck me as a real gentleman.
Here are the Comm's emphasis or focus initiatives:
a. Strengthening a 4-class system (all four classes) of leadership training and active duty service preparation, that makes clear the responsibilities, expectations for and commensurate privileges for all four classes of cadets, across the 47 months program (time) they spend preparing at USAFA. Emphasis on military training angles (prime responsibilities) and reinforcement provided by the Comm shop to the other two USAFA focus areas, academics and athletics.
b. Strengthening cadet's awareness of their individual levels of accountability within (the above) this framework.
c. Establishing a better appreciation by cadets of the profession of arms by the time they graduate.
d. Continuing to work toward reinforcing USAFA's application of and expectations for "world class" standards of excellence.
e. Emphasis on cadets "staying engaged" with the honor code (and not "looking away", to use his words). Realizing that not all entrants to USAFA carry a full appreciation of the concepts of honor when they enter the academy...the goal is to ensure they do have a full appreciation by the time they are upperclassmen and certainly by the time they graduate.
f. Attempting to eliminate "wasted training" or "mal-training" from cadet's fields of view, whenever possible.
g. Continuing to reinforce the imperatives of respecting all people, as the foundational environment for preparing cadets to lead people of all types and perspectives when they are on active duty.
Can you believe?: (these are things I heard tonight, not only from the Comm, but from internal conversation within the CAS).
a. It is projected to cost $579 million to refurbish Sijan Hall (currently the #1 sustainment/facility priority for USAFA, anticipated to be a 3 year project...not yet funded).
b. The Form O-96 "like" rating system is currently available from every table in Mitches via QR code? And, the Comm talked for about 5 minutes about the plusses and minuses of bringing back a viable O-96 "tradition" for modernized/practical reasons.
c. Apparently a substantial number of grads remain disturbed and vocally active about seeing cadets on TV at football games and not in Class A uniforms! Again, the Comm talked about this in a very calm and practical fashion, explaining why cadets don't wear Class A uniforms to most football games. (personal note/commentary, the USAFA intra-service games will never be the same as Army-Navy, but it seems many of our felly alums believe that the "new guys" can/should unseat the senior interservice football contest and its preeminent image).
d. USAFA applicant qualifications remain very, very high.
e. Cadets cannot have mustaches and cannot have beards (allowed by current AF active duty standards), unless they have a medical condition or a religious exemption (and even then, there are limits).
f. Class of 2024 assignment demographics are looking (currently) like: 330 pilot slots, 9 air battle manager slots, 20 RPV slots, 15 CSSO slots, 46 acquisition slots, 44 cyber slots, 56 intel slots, 26 Minuteman slots, 30 Force Protection/OSI slots, 90 Space Force slots (some of which are acquisition related, not all satellite flyers or engineers) These are just the stats I was able to capture in notes, didn't catch them all (comm was reading off the current official projection stats sheet) but you get the idea.
New/Other Meeting Topic(s):
AOG has initiated a new graduate annual award category "Leadership Achievement Award" to be given to grads 16-39 years from graduation. This fills middle ground between "honor graduate award" and "junior graduate award" and I believe will be presented in June for the first time this year. Nominations are open for this award thru Feb 2024.
1 Day - 1 USAFA is slated to be held 8 May 2024 for any/all grad gifting or donations.
Any '75 classmates interested in supporting USAFA Endowment giving programs by any means, (such as publicity or other) are encouraged to volunteer...contact Thomas Lennenberg at the Endowment.
That's the essence of the meeting. Please let me know if you have questions or comments and I'll update you when formal minutes are posted.
Bruce
A couple of my classmates have classic Vettes and annually on our ski trip I always ask if they are ready to sell. Well, my classmate, Dave Erhart, indicated that it was time to let his go. His was purchased when we were allowed to own cars just before our junior year. My first Vette was a yellow 69 and also a 4 speed like Dave's so we completed a deal. I was visiting Dick and LaNeal Russ in Oklahoma as I was trying to arrange shipping to California from Ft. Worth. Dick is a championship winning Jaguar XKE restorer and wrote the book on XKE restoration, literally. Well Dick asked if he could get it in mechanical shape so I could drive it to California and I should just transport it to his home in OKC. I tried to talk him out of it since I knew, being a Vette, he would regret it. Just like every Vette restorer, it is a love/hate relationship... The car is now fun to drive with a long list of physical appearance restoration items awaiting after arrival in California. (January 2024)
