{"id":23835,"date":"2020-04-19T11:26:46","date_gmt":"2020-04-19T18:26:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=23835"},"modified":"2020-04-19T11:26:46","modified_gmt":"2020-04-19T18:26:46","slug":"air-force-academy-graduation-2020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=23835","title":{"rendered":"Air Force Academy GRADUATION 2020"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Due to the threat of the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.usafa.edu\/news\/coronavirus\/\">coronavirus<\/a>, graduation for the Class of 2020 took place on Saturday, April 18, 2020. Although 6 weeks ahead of schedule, this allowed the cadets to celebrate together while ensuring their health and safety by adhering to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Department of Defense guidelines.<\/p>\n<p>Family, friends and the public were unable to attend in-person; however, over fifty thousand people watched the event streamed live. To watch the ceremony,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/Y6oI5rveBU0?t=2495\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Special thanks to all of our supporters who sent gifts,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/wetransfer.com\/downloads\/132771672d66e9185cd006d493846e5620200415191254\/ecf229\/grid\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">banners<\/a>\u00a0and congratulatory video messages.\u00a0 Many of the video messages were live-streamed prior to the ceremony and can be viewed by\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/Y6oI5rveBU0?t=1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>To see the story of the Class of 2020, following their progression from In-Processing and Basic Cadet Training to Ring Dance,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/Aivm-swyohE\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<div class=\"video-responsive\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Y6oI5rveBU0?t=2495\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>GRADUATION HIGHLIGHTS<\/p>\n<div>\n<hr \/>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.usafa.edu\/app\/uploads\/comm_ceremony.jpg\" alt=\"\u201ccommissioning ceremony\" \/><\/p>\n<h5>Commissioning Ceremonies<\/h5>\n<p>Private commissioning ceremonies occurred on Friday, April 17. Family and friends were unable to attend in-person; however, many squadrons offered virtual attendance. Please communicate with your cadet for further information. To view pictures from each squadron,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/af_academy\/collections\/72157713933568628\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.usafa.edu\/app\/uploads\/GradPhotography-Sq.png\" alt=\"\u201ccamera\" \/><\/p>\n<h5>Professional Photography<\/h5>\n<p>Since graduation was closed to the public and non-essential personnel, we had a team of photographers spread across the Terrazzo to capture the memories. We are working diligently to publish all of the pictures to our Flickr account, where they are 100% free to view and download in the highest resolutions. Please be patient. To view some of the pictures from the graduation ceremony,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/af_academy\/albums\/with\/72157713946347187\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.usafa.edu\/app\/uploads\/General_Ad.jpg\" alt=\"image of Lt Gen Jay Silveria\" \/><\/p>\n<h5>A Letter from the Superintendent<\/h5>\n<p>When the class of 2020 entered USAFA we were a nation at war. You have all signed up to serve in a time of war \u2013 to make a difference.\u00a0 We still battle terrorism and extremism around the world, but today we are at war with another enemy, a global pandemic, and that fight is unconventional.\u00a0 As a commander in conventional conflicts I had years of history to call on when making decisions \u2014 a playbook we don\u2019t have as we battle this pandemic. We must make unconventional decisions and take what some would consider extreme measures.\u00a0<a title=\"Lt Gen Sylveria welcome letter\" href=\"https:\/\/www.usafa.edu\/app\/uploads\/Dear-Parents-of-the-Class-of-2020-1.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">More\u2026<\/a><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.usafa.edu\/app\/uploads\/thunderbirds.jpg\" alt=\"Image of the Air Force Thunderbirds demonstration team.\" \/><\/p>\n<h5>Air Force Thunderbirds Flyover<\/h5>\n<p>The USAF Thunderbirds soared above the Terrazzo from south to north during the traditional hat toss. There was no demonstration, as has taken place in year\u2019s past at Falcon Stadium. To watch the flyover,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/USAFA.Official\/videos\/363661451219804\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Due to the threat of the\u00a0coronavirus,&#46;&#46;&#46;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23835","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-u-s-a"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23835","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23835"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23835\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23836,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23835\/revisions\/23836"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23835"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23835"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23835"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}