09/02/2026
On this date in 1958 – United States Air Force Academy opens in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
The United States Air Force Academy (USAFA) is a United States service academy in Air Force Academy, Colorado, immediately north of Colorado Springs. It educates cadets for service in the officer corps of the United States Air Force and United States Space Force. It is the youngest of the five service academies, having graduated its first class in 1959, but is the third in seniority. Graduates of the academy's four-year program receive a Bachelor of Science degree and are commissioned as second lieutenants in the U.S. Air Force or U.S. Space Force. The academy is also one of the largest tourist attractions in Colorado, attracting approximately a million visitors each year.
Congress passed legislation in 1954 to begin the construction of the Air Force Academy, and President Eisenhower signed it into law on 1 April of that year. The legislation established an advisory commission to determine the site of the new school. Among the panel members were Charles Lindbergh, General Carl Spaatz, and Lieutenant General Hubert R. Harmon, who later became the academy's first superintendent. The original 582 sites considered were winnowed to three: Alton, Illinois (by purchasing Principia College); Lake Geneva, Wisconsin (near Big Foot Beach State Park); and the ultimate site at Colorado Springs, Colorado. The Secretary of the Air Force, Harold E. Talbott, announced the winning site on 24 June 1954. Meanwhile, Air Training Command (ATC) began developing a detailed curriculum for the academy program.
From 1954 to 1956, the new Colorado Land Acquisition Commission purchased parcels of land that would host the new academy. The first parcel purchased was also the largest; it was the 4,630-acre (1,870 ha) Cathedral Rock Ranch, owned by Lawrence B. Lehman of the Lehman investment family. The purchase price was $300,000, or about $65 per 1-acre (4,000 m2). 140 parcels were eventually purchased to create what is now a nearly-18,500-acre (7,500 ha) government property.
Early Air Force Academy leaders could look at West Point and Annapolis in designing an appropriate curriculum, faculty, and campus. The academy's permanent site had not been completed when the first class entered, so the 306 cadets from the Class of 1959 were sworn in at a temporary site at Lowry Air Force Base in Denver on 11 July 1955. While at Lowry, they were housed in renovated World War II barracks. There were no upper-class cadets to train the new cadets, so the Air Force appointed a cadre of "Air Training Officers" (ATOs) to conduct training. The ATOs were junior officers, many of whom were graduates of West Point, Annapolis, VMI, and The Citadel. They acted as surrogate upper-class cadets until the upper classes could be populated over the next several years. The academy's dedication ceremony took place on that first day and was broadcast live on national television, with Walter Cronkite covering the event. Arnold W. Braswell was commander of the original four cadet squadrons at the academy 1955 to 1958.
In developing a distinctive uniform for cadets, the Air Force turned to Hollywood. Film director Cecil B. DeMille designed the cadet parade uniform still in use.
The Class of 1959 established many other important traditions. The first class adopted the Cadet Honor Code, and chose the falcon as the Academy's mascot. On 29 August 1958, the wing of 1,145 cadets moved to the present site near Colorado Springs, and less than a year later the academy received accreditation. The first USAFA class graduated and was commissioned on 3 June 1959.
