What’s a day without controversy at the Air Force Academy? Today’s installment: Academy Football Coach Fisher DeBerry was reprimanded this week by the school’s leadership for inane remarks about black athletes. DeBerry had told the Colorado Springs Gazette that he needed faster players but was at a disadvantage because black students were scarce at USAFA. He later elaborated by saying, “Afro-American kids can run very well; it’s very obvious to me that they run extremely well.” This was a dismal echo of remarks over the years by such luminaries as Jimmy “The Greek” Snyder. After a berating by the new Superintendent, Lt. Gen. John Regni, DeBerry apologized saying (what else?) that he “never intended to offend anyone.”
With the Air Force in the midst of its biggest testing boom in decades, the Maintenance Operational Test (MxOT) Division at Nellis Air Force Base, Nev., is making sure those tests include an often-overlooked perspective: that of maintainers.