Air Force Academy – Secretary of Defense Robert Gates told the Air Force Academy’s Class of 2007 that as young leaders in the military, they will face challenges in a complicated world that will test “your spirit and your resolve.”
“It is by no means an easy future,” Gates said. “We are engaged in two wars on the other side of the world. And we are engaged in an ideological struggle against some of the most barbaric enemies we have ever faced.”
Those battles seemed far from Falcon Stadium on Wednesday, as 977 graduates leaped with joy after receiving their bachelor’s degrees and cheered when an announcer read the lengthy name of one of their classmates: Kadawathgama Eatugalage Naveen Dhanushka Gunaratne.
After taking the oath to become second lieutenants, graduates lit cigars – some with “Operation Iraqi Freedom” emblems on them – as the Air Force Thunderbirds precision-flying team screamed at 500 to 600 mph over the crowd of 20,000.
“This is amazing. I don’t know how to describe it. It’s crazy,” said Lindsay Yip, 21, a 2003 graduate of Lakewood High School. “It’s pure excitement.”
Yip is one of 514 grads who will go to pilot training. Pilots are required to serve 10 years in the Air Force after earning their wings. All graduates, no matter what their future job, will serve a minimum of five years.
The Class of 2007 is the first to enter the academy since a sexual-assault scandal broke in February 2003. The class also was among the first to receive religious-sensitivity training, after a controversy erupted over a perception that evangelical Christians received favorable treatment at the academy.
As the graduation ceremony began, Col. Richard Hum, a chaplain, started the invocation by saying: “I would like to invite each of you who would like, in your own way, to offer a moment of solemnity to this momentous occasion. Let us pray together.”
Much of the criticism over religious tolerance at the academy came from Mikey Weinstein, a 1977 graduate who is Jewish. His son, Curtis, graduated Wednesday.
Yip, whose family is from Littleton, said that going into the Air Force during wartime is “kind of scary, but at the same time, exciting. This is what we came in for. It’s not like we didn’t know that this wasn’t what we were going to do when we graduated. We’re as prepared as we can be.”
As the Thunderbirds blazed over the stadium, Eric Miller, 21, of Baltimore said the best part about the academy was his final accomplishment – leaving with his diploma in hand.
“It’s something that I’ve always been told that I wouldn’t be able to do, and so, on this day, it just makes it even better. Back in high school, I was told, ‘You can’t do this.’ And I was like, ‘Oh, yeah?”‘
Miller is on his way to Scott Air Force Base in Illinois to become a weather forecaster.
Staff writer Erin Emery can be reached at 719-522-1360 or eemery@denverpost.com.
