By Mary Shinn | Colorado Springs Gazette
Secretary of the Air Force Troy Meink urged Air Force Academy leaders Thursday to focus on updating technical training to be ready for advanced artificial intelligence systems and collaborative combat aircraft. He also announced a change in leadership.
“Everyone who comes out of the academy should have a solid technical background,” Meink said during a meeting of the Air Force Academy’s Board of Visitors in Washington, D.C.
Amid his call to improve training, Meink announced the senior leadership at the academy will be changing.
A new superintendent will be installed in the coming months, Meink said. Replacing Superintendent Lt. Gen. Tony Bauernfeind this year would be a year ahead of the usual three- to four-year term. Bauernfiend was sworn in in June 2024.
“Over the next three to six months, the leadership at the Academy, the superintendent, … are all being changed up,” he said.
Bauernfeind has requested to retire from his position, according to a statement from the Secretary of the Air Force press desk.
Commandant Brig. Gen. Gavin Marks will also be retiring. Replacements have not been selected for either position, the statement said.
“I want to thank Gen. Bauernfeind for his dedicated service and leadership throughout his career,” Meink said in a statement. “Over several decades, through numerous combat deployments and as commander of Air Force Special Operations Command, he has consistently demonstrated a deep commitment to the mission.”
During the meeting, Meink highlighted some of the areas where he would like to see improvements at the school as the country prepares for more complex air conflict, where pilots will be coordinating aircraft, some unmanned, across hundreds of miles.
He is looking to the Air Force to train officers to build and operate “the most complicated systems that humans have ever built.”
The secretary went on to say that training must improve to prepare for those challenges.
“How we’re training is critical, and I am not sure we’re there,” he said.
The academy also needs to improve its culture.
“It’s critically important that we get that culture right and we get that leadership right. And I would argue that’s not always been the case,” he said.
There is also a need for more investment in technology to provide the best simulated training environments for cadets, saying in some cases, it’s possible cadets have better simulation environments on their home computers.
Meink called for improvements to training at the academy following the departures of senior academic faculty and possible cuts to the distinguished visiting professors.
Following the Trump administration’s deferred resignation and retirement programs, 104 positions were vacated and then eliminated. Another 36 positions that were filled were slated to be phased out earlier this year.
Among the jobs slated for elimination, 52 were faculty or administration staff, and among those, 19 are filled, The Gazette reported previously.
An Air Force Academy climate survey released recently showed that the number of people serving under the dean of faculty in all roles fell from 895 to 759, or about 136 positions. The numbers include contractors, research technicians and all different kinds of support roles and is not a perfect estimate of the number of departures.
But they have happened in key areas. Four of the six engineering department heads and seven of the most senior instructors in astronautical engineering are among those leaving this year, said former Air Force Academy distinguished professor Tom Bewley, who worked at the school last year.
“We are losing the best of the best,” he said.
Board of Visitors Chairman Rep. August Pfluger, R-Texas, said the board is asking questions about the faculty issue. He noted during the meeting that the board recommended to Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth that he look at increasing the number of cadets accepted into the academy and to analyze the number of staff at the Academy.
“I am concerned by the information that we learned at our last meeting about a reduction in manpower across the academy,” he said.
The board is recommending the Air Force Manpower Analysis Agency conduct an audit of the faculty, including active duty members, civilians, reservists, visiting professors, privately funded professors, international officers and fellows.
A back-of-the-napkin estimate showed the academy could need 100 to 120 additional staff in the Dean of Faculty and Athletic Department to bolster the number of cadets, Bauernfeind said.
The departure of highly qualified doctoral-level professors triggered a complaint to the Higher Learning Commission last year.
Since then, the school has responded effectively, Bauernfeind said
“We are well on our track of sustaining our accreditation,” he said.
First published on the Colorado Springs News Gazette
Air Force Academy Leaders Ousted in Shake Up
By Greg Hadley | Air & Space Forces Magazine
Leadership at the U.S. Air Force Academy is getting an overhaul as both Superintendent Lt. Gen. Tony Bauernfeind and Commandant of Cadets Brig. Gen. Gavin Marks will retire later this year and a new dean of faculty, Col. James Valpiani, is set to take charge of the instructors.
Air Force Secretary Troy E. Meink revealed the departures during a Board of Visitors meeting Feb. 5, a spokesperson confirmed. The successors for the academy’s two top jobs have not yet been formally announced, although the administration has narrowed its choices.
Meink suggested Bauernfeind’s impending would take place in “three to six months,” potentially making his the shortes tenure as superintendent in USAFA history. He assumed the job in August 2024, and every previous superintendent served at least two years.
Bauernfeind’s prior role was head of Air Force Special Operations Command, a position he held for just 19 months, one of the shortest command tenures in that organization’s history, as well.
“I want to thank General Bauernfeind for his dedicated service and leadership throughout his career,” Meink said in a statement. “Over several decades, through numerous combat deployments and as commander of Air Force Special Operations Command, he has consistently demonstrated a deep commitment to the mission and the Airmen behind it. At the Academy, he helped prepare future warfighters and he leaves a legacy that strengthens our people and our Air Force.
Marks has served as Commandant of Cadets since June 2023. The commandant is in charge of the Cadet Wing and oversees military training and extracurricular activities at the Academy. Others who have filled that role include historic figures like Brig. Gen. Robin Olds, future Chief of Staff Gen. Mark A. Welsh III, and future superintendent Lt. Gen. Richard M. Clark.
Bauernfeind’s and Marks’ departures come in the wake of major changes at USAFA, where civilian faculty positions were slashed in 2025 as part of a broader Defense Department-wide push to trim the civilian workforce. Air Force leaders said then they planned to fill more positions with uniformed instructors. The faculty cuts sparked complaints from current and former faculty members, resulting in a procedural review of USAFA’s accreditation by the Higher Learning Commission. Bauernfeind said during the Board of Visitors meeting that the accreditation had been confirmed.
Concerns that the Academy would cut the number of majors offered by the school remain. Bauernfeind said during the board meeting that all existing majors will continue to be offered at least through the class of 2027 and “hopefully” the class of 2028, depending on that class’s selections.
The Academy was also swept up in Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s drive to eliminate diversity, equity, and inclusion programs and his focus on “Warrior Ethos.” USAFA dropped a minor in “Diversity and Inclusion Studies,” conducted a library review to scrub for texts that promoted DEI, and revised its mission statement, replacing the word “educate” with “forge” and “service to the nation” with “fighting and winning our nation’s wars.”
The new mission is: “To forge leaders of character, motivated to a lifetime of service, and developed to lead our Air Force and Space Force as we fight and win our nation’s wars.”
Morale has reportedly declined. Local TV station KOAA reported in January that an internal staff survey revealed 72 percent of staff said the climate on campus was worse than the previous year, and just 30 percent of respondents said they had high morale. Officials at the board meeting cautioned that the results of that survey are preliminary.
A cheating scandal in March 2025 resulted in nearly 100 cadets being disciplined, and men’s basketball coach Joe Scott was recently suspended amid an investigation into his treatment of cadet-athletes. And the $335 million Air Force Academy Chapel renovation project, which President Donald Trump termed a “mess” in October, continues to be plagued with problems and now faces a possible investigation.
Yet Bauernfeind tried to be positive at the Board of Visitors meeting, noting such successes in 2025 as the acquisition and use of small drones at the school, the addition of three new minors focused on warfighting, new fitness standards, and an increase in applications of 11 percent.
While cadets, faculty, staff, and alumni await the appointment of new leaders, one change already confirmed is the Faculty Dean, Valpiani, who will oversee Academy academics. A career F-15E pilot and former commandant of the U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School, Valpiani most recently led the aerial combat autonomy research program at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.
I’m 100% in on the shake-up at USAFA. It won’t be easy cleaning out years of DEI culture.
What’s going on at USAFA? Why the leadership change? What went wrong? What are the powers that be changing leadership? I don’t want to read about what great careers these general officers had, nor platitudes. What went wrong?