Cadet candidates recognized for academic, character development

U.S. AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo. -- Graduates, parents and distinguished guests gathered for the 2012 Air Force Academy Preparatory School Graduation Tuesday in Arnold Hall Theater to applaud cadet candidates on their pre-Academy achievements.

A total of 201 were honored for completion of the school's 10-month program of intense military, academic and physical training to develop the skills and character needed for success at the Academy.

"I'm confident that over the last 10 months we've gone to great lengths in preparing your sons and daughters to succeed at the Academy and become cadets and officers of character," Preparatory School commander Col. Bart Weiss said. "Your sons and daughters education experience was interlaced in athletics, academics, military training, peer leadership development and character building, bounded under the honor code and dedicated towards service, integrity and excellence."

Retired Lt. Col. Bud Kelly, member of the Academy's first Preparatory School graduation class of 1962 and a 1966 Academy graduate, spoke to graduates on the foundation the school has provided them.

"I was an enlisted Airman when the idea of a Prep School first occurred, and I had to be pushed into applying," Kelly said. "From there, it snowballed into a life that, as an Airman, I had never dreamed of. Fifty years ago I stood where you stand and crossed the same finish line you crossed only to find out it was a starting line."

The Academy's Prep School was created in May 1961. It allows civilian and active-duty applicants not accepted into the Academy, an opportunity to prepare for the Academy and increase, not guarantee, their chance for admission into the Academy.

"It's not a guaranteed school of anything, it's an opportunity school," Kelly said. "The only thing men and women of the Prep School are given is a chance to be tested, to excel and given the opportunity to prove that they're up to the challenge. I believe that preppies are given the finest staff in any military institution in the country."

Kelly said graduation from the school will bring about neat opportunities.

"I don't know who you will become or where success will take you, but I know for fact that the foundation of this experience has prepared you to go to places, meet people and do things that you can't even imagine right now," Kelly said.

Kelly said his experience at the Prep School has forever connected him to his 1962 classmates and made each one of them brighter and more courageous.

"Each of us is formidable, but together we are magnificent," Kelly said. "It is time for the class of 2012 to join your brothers and sisters in this formation."

Academy Superintendent Lt. Gen. Mike Gould distributed certificates to the graduates. An informal reception for graduates and attendees followed in the Arnold Hall Ballroom.

Like the Academy, admission into the Prep School is competitive. Approximately 240 cadet candidates are accepted into the program each summer.