últimas notícias

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Air Force Academy sent its 2020 graduates into the ranks six weeks early on Saturday — a move the military hasn’t done since World War II — as the coronavirus pandemic sweeps the nation.

The ceremony for the nearly 1,000 cadets took place on the academy grounds in the military-rich town of Colorado Springs with guests and families watching virtually in order to comply with social distancing guidelines.

“When you arrived in 2016 or so, you knew your graduation day would be memorable, but did you imagine that your commencement would take place in mid-April, or that each of us would have a face mask at the ready or that you would march a Covid compliant 8 feet apart on the Terrazzo, or for that matter, that commissioning into the Space Force would be an option,” Secretary of the Air Force Barbara Barrett posed to the graduating class.

“Today, you are living history,” she added.

Of the graduating cadets, 86 commissioned for the first time into the U.S. Space Force. Vice President Mike Pence was on hand to deliver the commencement address.

“You’re the elite. You stepped forward to serve your nation. You endured the rigors of training here at the Air Force Academy, and you’ve done so under some of the most difficult circumstances in the history of this storied institution,” Pence said referencing the coronavirus outbreak.

“America is being tested. And while there are signs that we’re making progress and slowing the spread as we stand here today more than 700,000 Americans have contracted the coronavirus and tragically, more than 37,000 of our countrymen have lost their lives,” he added. “But as each of you has shown in your time here, and as the American people always show in challenging times — when hardship comes, Americans come together.”

Following the commencement address, U.S. Air Force General John “Jay” Raymond, the first chief of space operations of the U.S. Space Force, asked the first 86 cadets to raise their right hands and take the oath. The remaining cadets stood and took their oath from U.S. Air Force General David Goldfein, chief of staff of the Air Force.

Per tradition, the nation’s newly-minted officers threw their caps towards the sky as U.S. Air Force Thunderbird jets flew over.