Class of 1959

The Class of 1959 is the first graduating class from the Air Force Academy.

[edit] History

The Class of 1959, having no upperclassmen, were trained by Air Training Officers (ATOs).
Their Basic Training was eight weeks of intense military and physical training, culminating with a week’s bivouac at Buckley Field.
Near the end of summer training one day at lunch in the mess hall the class was asked to decide upon an academy mascot. The choice quickly centered around the falcon and the tiger. In retrospect, it’s hard to remember why the tiger was an attractive idea for a mascot for an Air Force School, especially since it is used as the mascot for so many other schools. But the Falcon it was, by a show of hands of the cadets.
During the first year the Wing of Cadets was honored by an inspection by the President of the United States, President Dwight Eisenhower, who received a briefing on the new school and inspected First Squadron.

Valmore Bourque was the first to take the oath. He graduated with the Class of 1960 and later died in Vietnam, the first USAFA grad to die in combat.
'59 did not go home for Christmas their first year.
Time Magazine, 1 June 1959: "We haven’t done badly in a bare four years," says a high-ranking faculty member. "I’d say 50% of the first graduating class are the well balanced men we wanted to produce, 25% are lacking except in scientific and engineering skills, and the rest should not be graduated."