USAFA's Historic Cemetery Part 1 of 4

Traveling around the 18,500-acre Air Force Academy campus, one can see breathtaking natural scenery, modern architecture, and tributes to Air Force and Academy pioneers.  ----more----

There is a place that features all of these attributes:  the Academy Cemetery.  Nestled amid pine trees east of the Cadet Area, the 100-acre facility is the final resting place for nearly 2,000 individuals.  The burial ground dates back to the earliest days of the Academy’s existence at the permanent site.  On 22 September 1958, less than a month after the cadets moved down from their temporary home at Lowry Air Force Base in Denver, General Order Number 32 established the United States Air Force Academy Cemetery.  Less than a week later, on 28 September, the initial funeral was held.  Appropriately, that ceremony honored Lieutenant General Hubert Harmon.  Sadly, the Academy’s first Superintendent had not survived to see the Class of ’59, USAFA’s first class, graduate.  On 22 February 1957, he had passed away at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas, due to cancer.  The entire Cadet Wing, as well as the Academy staff and hundreds of relatives and friends, participated in the ceremony.  It was the first occasion on which the Cadet Wing wore the all-white parade uniform designed by pioneering Hollywood movie director and producer Cecil B. DeMille.

 

 

 

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