U.S. AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo. -- The cadet wing moved their annual march in honor of Founders Day to the terrazzo April 2 due to the snow that covered Stillman Parade Field.
Cadets assigned to the Academy’s 40-sqaudron wing marched in the parade.
Founders Day is a traditional celebration of the legacy and future of the Air Force Academy and its founders, said the Academy Superintendent, Lt. Gen. Michelle Johnson.
"Founders Day is an opportunity for us to reflect on the rich and proud legacy of the Long Blue Line and on our principal mission for our Air Force, and our nation: to develop leaders of character," said Johnson, a 1981 Academy graduate. “The bold, innovative and visionary legacy of those who founded the Air Force’s only Academy is part of every graduate. It's entrenched in our culture."
Since the school opened its doors in 1954, nearly 50,000 cadets have graduated to become Air Force officers, including Chesley Sullenberger, a retired airline captain who landed a passenger jet on the Hudson River in January 2009, and former Colorado Rep. Heather Wilson.
President Eisenhower signed Public Law 325, Eighty-third Congress, Second Session, the legislation on April, 1954, establishing the creation of an Air Force Academy.
Founder’s Day wasn’t celebrated until years later, but it’s now an annual event at the Academy.
“As the Academy, the Academy's Association of Graduates, and graduates around the globe celebrate the Academy’s 62nd birthday, we can look back with pride at how far the Academy has come since April 1, 1954, and how the commemoration of that significant milestone has matured,” said retired Lt. Col. Steven Simon, a 1977 Academy graduate and former alumni official at the Academy.