1978: NOAA announces gender-neutral hurricane naming system
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Early Air Force Academy leadership followed the models of West Point and the Naval Academy in designing an appropriate curriculum, faculty, and campus. No permanent home had been completed when the first class of 306 cadets, the Class of 1959, were sworn in at a temporary site at Lowry Air Force Base in Denver on July 11, 1955. While at Lowry, they were housed in renovated World War II barracks. There were no upper class cadets to train the new cadets, so the Air Force appointed a cadre of “air training officers” (ATOs) to conduct training. The ATOs were junior officers, many of whom were graduates of West Point, Annapolis, VMI, and The Citadel. For the cadet parade uniform, the Air Force hired Hollywood director Cecil B. DeMille to design the style which is still worn today. The CLass of 1959 also adopted the Cadet Honor Code and chose the falcon as the Academy’s mascot. On Aug. 29, 1958, 1,145 cadets moved to the Academy’s present site near Colorado Springs and less than a year later the institution was accredited.
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