
If the Air Force Academy is going to transform itself from an elite “flying club” to part of a modern, values- based military, recent reforms need to continue, the school’s outgoing leader said Monday.
Superintendent Lt. Gen. John Rosa said his successor – yet- to-be-confirmed Lt. Gen. John Regni of Maxwell Air Force Base’s Air University – needs to resist pressure to relax and let old ways creep back in.
“Gen. Regni’s challenge will be to make sure what we’ve put into place is actually happening,” said Rosa, 54, who will leave the academy and a 32-year career with the Air Force this week to become president of The Citadel, his alma matter.
When Rosa took the helm at the academy in July 2003, the school was facing a sexual-assault scandal that rocked the campus and led to the ouster of top commanders.
The Air Force’s “Agenda for Change” outlined several directives to make the academy safer and more welcoming to female cadets.
Rosa oversaw implementation of those directives, and reports of sex assault declined 50 percent in his first year, he said.
The crisis also brought the academy under direct Air Force oversight for the first time in its 50-year history.
In May, controversy erupted over charges that evangelical Christians at the academy had created an atmosphere of intolerance for other faiths.
Rosa publicly admitted the intolerance problem and began addressing the issue.
The first phase of mandatory religious-respect training has started, and a second phase is scheduled to begin in January.
Regni will have to create the third phase, Rosa said, which will train cadets to lead a religiously diverse workforce.
Rosa said Regni also will need to crack down on high-risk drinking behavior. Underage drinking and even legal traditions – such as 21 shots on a cadet’s 21st birthday – must be eliminated, he said.
“Alcohol is not a huge epidemic here. It’s probably higher at other colleges,” Rosa said. “But Gen. Regni will need to cut out high-risk behaviors.”
Rosa announced in June that he will become the new president of The Citadel, a military college in South Carolina.
He said only 6 percent of The Citadel’s student population is female – compared with 17 percent at the academy – and that the school has its own protected traditions he will have to scrutinize as president.
“Traditions run in about 10-year cycles,” he said. “We have to ask, what are the enduring traditions, like academic excellence and superior military training.”



