HERITAGE MINUTE heritageminute

The Association of Graduates’ Heritage Trail includes the POW Memorial Sculpture.  Located at the entrance of the Southeast Asia Memorial Pavilion, it contains the names of the 33 Academy graduates who were prisoners of war in Vietnam.  ----more----
It also lists the dates of their captivity and, if applicable, release.  Unfortunately, two graduates died in captivity:  Captains Lance Sijan, Class of ’65, and Michael Bosiljevac, Class of ’67.  Nineteen of those POWs, as well as family members of the deceased, attended the sculpture’s dedication ceremony on April 24th, 2015.  General Ron Yates, Class of ’60, initiated and oversaw the project.  In addition to his class, the Classes of ’63, ’64, ’65, and ’67 provided funding.  The 2000-pound bronze plaque, called “Honor Bound:  A Portrait of Courage,” was sculpted by Jim Nance, Class of ’71, who flew one of the C-141 missions that brought POWs out of Southeast Asia in 1973.  Incidentally, his father spent three years as a POW in World War II.  Then-Cadet Joseph Flescher, Class of ’14, served as the model for the determined and defiant POW depicted.  The metal used in the sculpture includes more than 100 donated copper POW bracelets that were melted into the bronze.
 
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The Heritage Minute Channel is a production of the Long Blue Line Podcast Network and presented by the U.S. Airforce Academy Association and Foundation
 
 

The largest and most commanding structure on the Heritage Trail is the Southeast Asia Memorial Pavilion.  A gift of the Class of ‘70, it was dedicated on October first, 2010, during the class’s 40-year reunion.  ----more----
The facility pays homage to Air Force Academy graduates who served and sacrificed during the Southeast Asia conflict.  Plaques list each of the 150 Academy graduates who died in the war, from the Classes of 1959 to 1972.  Other plaques pay tribute to our sister service academies.  The Pavilion has nine granite benches, one for each of the Class of ’70 graduates killed in the war, and a flag perpetually at half-staff.  The black granite wall is evocative of Washington D.C.’s Vietnam Veterans Memorial.  The Pavilion bisects a blue wall, representing how the war impacted the “Long Blue Line” of Academy graduates.  One key feature inside the Pavilion is a bronze bas-relief map of Southeast Asia that includes locations of major bases and operations during that conflict.  It was sculpted by Vietnam veteran Jim Nance, Class of ’71. The Pavilion also has interactive screens, which provide context to the war, with information on the culture and news of the times.  The front wall points to the Cadet Area to remind cadets of graduate heritage during the war, a legacy of heroism and service presented and preserved by this remarkable facility.
 
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The Heritage Minute Channel is a production of the Long Blue Line Podcast Network and presented by the U.S. Airforce Academy Association and Foundation
 
 
 
 

In the traffic circle outside Doolittle Hall, the Air Force Academy alumni headquarters, is a remarkable sculpture of Pegasus. ----more----
This winged horse, a gift from the Italian government, has been on the Academy grounds since before our first class graduated.  The Pegasus statue is a replica of one displayed at the Italian Air War College in Florence.  In mythology, Pegasus is noted for invincibility in war, as well as glory, knowledge and inspiration.  The sculpture stands more than 10 feet tall and weighs eight and a half tons.  The ball on the base represents planet earth.  The marble used for Pegasus was quarried in the Apuan Alps near where Michelangelo obtained the stone for many of his projects.  The carving of the sculpture was supervised by noted Italian sculptor Mario Moschi and was dedicated on May 15th, 1959.  General Silvio Napoli, Chief of Staff of the Italian Air Force, was the guest of honor at the ceremony.  The statue stood outside the Arnold Hall Ballroom until the spring of 1994, when it was moved to Doolittle Hall.  USAFA lore says that Pegasus will fly under certain circumstances, but in this case, it “flew” in a more conventional way, by crane and truck.

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

In the waning days of his 45-year career serving and supporting the Long Blue Line, Maj. (Ret.) Tom Kroboth was inducted as an honorary member of the Association of Graduates during a Dec. 5, 2023 ceremony.----more----
Reprinted from the March 2024 issue of Checkpoints MagazineWritten by Jeff Holmquist
“This is certainly long overdue,” Brig. Gen. (Ret.) Hans Mueh ’66, a member of the AOG board of directors, commented during the gathering. “What a special and distinguished career supporting USAFA and its graduates.”
Kroboth has long been considered a valued part of the USAFA family — a key contributor to Checkpoints magazine and a mainstay at Jim Glaza’s ’60 Jurassic Park tailgate party hosted by the Academy’s first four classes — but his induction cemented his place in the institution’s history. Affec- tionately known as “Kro,” Kroboth was joined by family, friends and colleagues for the special gathering at Doolittle Hall.
“I’m proud to be named an honorary member,” he says. “It’s exciting and humbling.”
Calling him “the man behind the curtain,” Gen. Mueh suggested that Kroboth was the unassuming early employee of the AOG. He was the lone member of the AOG’s communications team in the early years and among just a handful of employees of the alumni organization back then.
During his lengthy tenure with the AOG, Kroboth served as editor of Check- points magazine and director of publica- tions for the organization. For the past 20 years, he’s worked part time as “Gone But Not Forgotten” and Class News edi- tor, among “the most widely read pieces in Checkpoints,” Gen. Mueh says.
Lt. Gen. (Ret.) Mike Gould ’76, then- CEO of the AOG and the Air Force Academy Foundation, reported that the board of directors voted unanimously to induct Kro as an honorary member.
“It didn’t take much to convince the board,” he says. “From honesty, integrity, selflessness and excellence across the board, you epitomize our core values. I hope that you feel this invitation for you to become one of us is heartfelt, because it is.”
Proof of Kro’s selfless service is found inside each edition of Checkpoints, Gen. Gould notes. There are no bylines identifying the significant work he’s been doing for decades.
“There’s no credit-seeking on Tom Kroboth’s part,” he says. “He just published this year in and year out, four editions a year, for 40-some years and not looking for any credit. You deserve all the credit, and we are so honored to be able to bring you into the AOG as an honorary member.”
CORRALING A MUSTANG
Expelled from Central Catholic High School in Allentown, Pennsylvania, for smoking in the men’s bathroom, Kroboth decided to enlist in the military in 1955.
He initially joined the Marine Corps Reserve under the delayed entry pro- gram, expecting to officially swear into that service in the fall. But when he arrived for inprocessing, the line for the Marines was terribly long. No one was standing in the Air Force line, however, so Kroboth enlisted with the nation’s newest military branch instead.
“This airman was almost a Marine, but luckily for us he chose the blue,” Gen. Gould says.
He served as an enlisted airman for 12 years, rising to the grade of technical sergeant. He was a boom operator in the KC-135, KB-29 and KC-97 during that time, assigned to Strategic Air Command. He was first stationed at Bergstrom Air Force Base in Austin, Texas, and later headed to Fairchild Air Force Base in Spokane, Washington.
Kroboth was then selected for the Airman’s Education and Commissioning Program and attended Syracuse University. While there, he earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism and a master’s de- gree in mass communications. He also met and married his wife of 52 years, Jan, while getting his degrees.
 
Maj. (Ret.) Tom Kroboth, second from right, celebrates his induction as an honorary member of the Association of Graduates with his wife, Jan, and, f

An important part of the Association of Graduates’ commitment to heritage is recognizing and honoring the Academy’s most outstanding graduates.  ----more----
While every graduate contributes in his or her own way, some are worthy of special recognition.  The AOG’s Heritage Trail contains pedestals dedicated to the Distinguished Graduate Award recipients.  The Distinguished Graduate Award recognizes exceptional graduates who have set themselves apart by making extraordinarily significant contributions to our nation and/or their communities.  The award, jointly presented by the AOG and the Academy, was established in 1999 and first presented during Founders Day 2002.  The initial recipients, technically the 2001 honorees, were General Ronald Fogleman, Class of ’63, and Mr. Harry Pearce, Class of ’64.  The pedestals are made of granite quarried in South Dakota.  Each pedestal weighs just under two-thousand pounds.  The prestige of an institution is measured by the accomplishments of its graduates.  Distinguished Graduates are among those who provide an example of the qualities we Zoomies value.

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

A key feature of the Heritage Trail at Doolittle Hall is the Challenge Bridge.  The bridge was commissioned by the Academy’s first graduating class, the Class of ’59, and their surrogate upperclassmen, the Air Training Officers. ----more----
It was dedicated on June 17th, 2004, when members of the class were at the Academy for their 45-year reunion.  The stone and mortar structure serves as a gateway to the Heritage Trail and was intended to inspire cadets to reflect on the oath of service and commitment they had chosen for their lives.  Before crossing the bridge, the cadets, who aspire to someday join the “Long Blue Line” of Academy graduates, read the text on the bridge-mounted plaque: “To each incoming cadet:  The path to which you aspire has been consecrated by the blood of heroes and paved with the selfless service of countless men and women like you.  If you would be worthy of this Heritage:  Make integrity the bedrock value of your life; Let your actions always be guided by an unshakeable sense of duty, self-discipline, and personal responsibility; Become a lifelong student of history, war, humanity, and leadership; Be prepared to sacrifice everything to defend the principles upon which our nation was founded; Cross this bridge with the determination to live a life that will make all who went before proud of you.”
 
 
The Heritage Minute Channel is a production of the Long Blue Line Podcast Network and presented by the U.S. Airforce Academy Association and Foundation