By Cleo Westin | Colorado Springs Gazette
Board members of the U.S. Air Force Academy Association of Graduates will vote on two honors for the late Charlie Kirk during their meeting on Friday.
The independent 501(c)(3) organization for academy graduates will decide whether to award Kirk with honorary AOG membership and recommend him for an honorary AFA degree.
The action was put on the agenda by AOG Director Rod Bishop, who is a 1974 USAFA graduate and board member of the Unity Slate, an AOG advocacy group.
Bishop proposed honoring Kirk, who was assassinated while speaking at Utah Valley College in September, because he “exudes all of the qualities” that USAFA graduates would want to “count among our numbers.”
“I think most do not understand the impact Charlie had upon our youth (and cadets) in grounding them in the tenets of the vision of our founding fathers,” Bishop stated in a post on the Unity Slate website. “He was a USAFA teammate (member of our Board of Visitors) for way too short a time – but I can think of no one who had a greater impact – an impact that will live years beyond his time serving the USAFA.”
The Gazette attempted to reach Bishop multiple times on Wednesday for comment and did not receive a response.
In March, Unity Slate and Stand Together Against Racism and Radicalism in the Services (STARRS) had five endorsed candidates elected to the AOG, including Bishop.
Both organizations advocate against wokeness and diversity, equity and inclusion within the military, according to their websites. Unity Slate’s mission is specifically aimed toward accomplishing this within the AOG.
Bishop stated in his post that Kirk’s politics should be put aside in these agenda items and that he would be honored in part for loving the Academy, encouraging civil dialogue and promoting freedom of speech.
If approved, Kirk, a prominent conservative commentator, appears to be the first person who would posthumously receive the honorary membership and would join a small group of those without military service.
STARRS CEO and President Ron Scott, a 1973 AFA graduate, told The Gazette he remains “neutral” on the agenda items honoring Kirk and that it would be “unprecedented” if approved due to the posthumous circumstances and lack of military service.
Kirk did not serve in the military but was appointed by President Donald Trump earlier this year to serve on the AFA’s board of visitors and attended one meeting before his murder.
“I met Charlie Kirk,” Scott said. “I was there on Aug. 7 when the board of visitors met and Charlie gave a tremendous, inspirational set of closing remarks about why a cadet is at the Academy.”
In that speech, which is transcribed within Bishop’s statement, Kirk told the board that cadets can articulate and feel American exceptionalism. He added that the Academy is not Harvard or Dartmouth, where students can “spread anti-American ideas,” and DEI and critical race theory should be stripped from the Academy.
Katherine Smith, the eighth Black female USAFA graduate, said she it was “repulsive” that the measures were put on the agenda and believes the AOG is apolitical and that Kirk DEI (Didn’t Earn It).
“We should be a diverse and inclusive institution, and this would send a message that some people are better than others and that you don’t have to earn the recognition you get,” Smith said.
The distinction began in 1981, and many of the 47 honorary members served for decades within the military or at the Academy.
“For me, [the Academy] provided an opportunity, but I don’t know that I would ask someone to send their child to a place that didn’t value me,” Smith said.
Eric Garven, a 1981 AFA graduate, said the AOG should not celebrate the life of “an unapologetic racist” who spent his life “sowing seeds of hatred.”
“It’s the ultimate slap in the face to me because you’re celebrating a person who’s actively trying to oppress people that look like me with his racist attitudes,” Garven told The Gazette.
Smith and Garven denounced the killing of Kirk and described this as a separate issue about valor being provided by the AOG.
While the AOG is formally non-partisan, it fell into arguments over partisan divides in September after the board chairwoman’s husband called two other members, including Bishop, “racist Trumpists.”
According to a post on STARRS’ website, the chairwoman “did nothing to intervene” after her husband allegedly confronted them.
The AOG will vote on Kirk’s honorary membership and recommendation for an honorary degree during the 12:30 to 3:30 p.m. portion of their meeting on Friday, which is only open to AOG members.
First published on the Colorado Springs Gazette
Air Force Academy alumni board to vote on honoring Charlie Kirk
By Nikki Wentling | Military Times
A board of U.S. Air Force Academy graduates is to vote Friday on whether to award honorary membership in the academy’s alumni association to Charlie Kirk, a conservative activist killed last month while hosting a debate at a Utah college.
The vote will be held by the board of directors of the Association of Graduates, which serves as the academy’s nonprofit alumni group. In addition to voting on the honorary membership, the board is expected to consider Kirk for an honorary Air Force Academy degree.
Although an honorary degree vote is on the agenda, the Association of Graduates does not have the authority in its bylaws to award one, association staff told Military Times. Instead, the motion recommends the Air Force Academy award it.
It was unclear Thursday whether the academy had the authority to issue honorary degrees. If not, the motion directs the academy to seek the authority to issue them.
Honorary membership into the Association of Graduates is awarded to those who have “rendered outstanding and conspicuous service” to the Air Force or the academy, according to the alumni group.
The board has voted in 47 honorary members since 1981, the most recent being retired Lt. Col. Louis Burkel III, who worked at the academy as a gymnastics coach for more than 30 years. Just prior to Burkel was Chief Master Sgt. Bob Vasquez, who retired as the Cadet Wing’s curriculum branch manager in 2022 after working with cadets for more than 20 years.
For the motion on honorary membership to pass Friday, a minimum of 80% of the board must vote to approve it.
According to the meeting agenda, the measures to honor Kirk are being proposed by retired Lt. Gen. Rod Bishop, who was elected to the board of directors this year. Bishop and several other candidates were backed in the election by Unity Slate, a group of academy graduates who stand against the academy’s diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.
“I can’t think of anyone I have ever met that better exudes all of the qualities of a candidate that we as USAFA graduates would want to count among our numbers than Charlie,” Bishop is quoted as saying in a post Wednesday by Unity Slate. “Faith, family, so much love for our country and the vision of our Founding Fathers — Charlie had it all.”
In an email to its members Wednesday, Unity Slate wrote that some Air Force Academy graduates were opposed to the idea and had contacted Mark Hille, president and CEO of the Association of Graduates, with their concerns.
Retired Air Force Brig. Gen. Marty France is one of the graduates speaking out against it. France is a former board member with the alumni group and the former head of the academy’s Department of Astronautics.
“As a former elected board member of the AOG, graduate, parent of a graduate and long-time faculty member, I know that those previously honored in this manner each served USAFA for decades in a wide variety of roles. I know because I voted on several of these decisions almost 20 years ago,” France said. “Whatever service [Kirk] provided to USAFA does not rise anywhere near what we should require as a minimum before even considering him for such mention.”
President Donald Trump appointed Kirk in March to join the academy’s board of visitors, a group that meets several times a year to provide nonbinding advice on issues including curriculum, student morale, academic methods and the needs of the institution, such as equipment and funding.
Kirk’s appointment came after Trump fired the board of visitors at the Air Force Academy, as well as the boards at the Military Academy, Naval Academy and Coast Guard Academy, claiming they had been “infiltrated by woke leftist ideologies.”
Kirk, co-founder of the conservative youth organization Turning Point USA, attended one board of visitors meeting Aug. 7 before he was assassinated at Utah Valley University on Sept. 10.
According to the official minutes from the Aug. 7 meeting, Kirk asked Air Force Academy staff to explain how they were following directives from Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on critical race theory and diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. Kirk said he wanted to ensure the faculty “doesn’t push the worldview of oppression, oppressor/oppressed dynamics, anti-western, anti-American, and gender ideology,” the meeting minutes read.
The academy was directed in April to review its library for anything related to DEI, gender ideology and critical race theory. In May, Hegseth barred the military service academies from considering race, gender or ethnicity in admissions.
Kirk also pushed for the faster completion of an extensive restoration of the academy’s cadet chapel. Renovations began in 2019 and are expected to be complete in 2028.
In closing remarks, Kirk urged the academy to focus its curriculum on teaching cadets the idea of American exceptionalism.
“It’s one thing to strip away the DEI, the critical race theory — of which we’re going to be continually, politely bothering you on with questions — but also we want to make sure that someone over the course of four years, they can articulate and feel within their soul American exceptionalism, what they’re willing to die for, what is that Constitution they’re swearing an oath to,” Kirk said.
“It’s imperative that these cadets know that we are the greatest nation ever … not ever any sort of question about that.”
Friday’s vote follows another honor presented to Kirk this week. On Tuesday, which would have been Kirk’s 32nd birthday, Trump posthumously awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom, America’s highest civilian honor.
“Make sure USAFA cadets can articulate and feel in their soul American Exceptionalism” –Charlie Kirk
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