Commissioning Ceremony

From USAFA Folklore

Commissioning Ceremonies have traditionally been held between midnight the night before graduation and the graduation ceremony. Each cadet squadron has its own ceremony, which typically involves around 24 graduating cadets. A committee of the soon-to-be-first class cadets in the squadron organize the ceremony for their graduating first class cadets.

For many years, the ceremonies had been restricted on on-base locations. Ceremonies usually took place in locations such as squadron assembly rooms in Vandenberg Hall and Sijan Hall and academic department conference rooms in Fairchild Hall.

Cadets individually choose the officer or retired officer to administer their oath of office. It is often a family member, the Air Officer Commanding, an officer who sponsored the cadet, a faculty member, or a coach.

Commissioning ceremonies had evolved into elaborate affairs downtown and the PTB perceived that cadets and their families did not have time for transportation and sleep, among other things, and so banned the squadron based "pre-ceremonies" after 2005 graduated. Cadets were given the option of having a squadron ceremony after the graduation ceremony. In one of the more absurd incarnations, the locations of the ceremonies were designated by lottery to the various squadrons. A lucky few squadrons received their commissions in places such as the O'club, whereas the unlucky squadrons got commissioned outdoors on the damp, manure-smelling athletic fields, or inside the Air Academy High School gymnasium.

After the graduate community expressed its unhappiness with the discontinuation of the tradition, it was re-established in 2006. Ceremonies are limited to pre-approved on-base locations.