Colorado Springs – About 20,000 people watched as 977 Air Force Academy cadets in Parade Dress marched into Falcon Stadium this morning during graduation ceremonies.
The Class of 2007 was bestowed with the traditional amnesty granted by the superintendent of the academy, then prepared to listen as Defense Secretary Robert Gates gave the address.
This is the second class to enter the academy after terrorists crashed planes into New York’s Twin Towers in September of 2001.
“You knew the dangers of the world you were entering,” Gates said. “You still chose to embark on the journey.”
Gates told the cadets that the future would not be easy. “We are engaged in an ideological struggle … against some of the most barbaric enemies” the United States has faced. “The challenges you will face will test your spirit and your resolve.”
Gates told cadets that the world will be watching as they fight the war on terror.
Mistakes made on the battlefield against “enemies who possess no conscience and no remorse” will be magnified and transmitted globally in this Internet age, Gates warned the cadets, on a brisk, windy day beneath snowcapped Pikes Peak.
“We live in an age when friends and enemies alike will seek out and focus on any and all mistakes made under great stress,” he declared. “When you are called to lead, when you are called to stand in defense of your country in faraway lands, you must hold your values and your honor close to your heart.” Gates said leaders must do what is right, even when it will bring bad publicity or sacrifice personal friendships.
“Don’t kid yourselves: More often than not, doing this means traveling a lonely and difficult road,” he said.
Gates’ address “just encapsulates what we have been trying to learn and live for the past four years,” said graduate Nicole Keller, 22, of Colorado Springs.
Six F-16 Thunderbirds performed barrel rolls and other maneuvers over the stadium to cheers from the crowd as the white-gloved graduates in parade dress tossed their hats into the air.
