Retired Brig. Gen. Robert F. McDermott, former dean of the Air Force Academy, died Aug. 28 of a stroke at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio. He was 86. A World War II combat pilot, McDermott was best known for his transformational curriculum and policies at the academy, many of which migrated to the other military academies, earning him the title “Father of Military Education.” In 1957, President Dwight Eisenhower had named him the school’s first permanent professor and, later, the first permanent dean of the faculty, a title he retained for nearly 10 years. After retiring from the service in 1968, McDermott led the USAA insurance company, spending 24 years as the chief executive.
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. still “believes” in his mantra of “Accelerate Change or Lose”—and indicated the doctrinal changes it produced when he was Air Force Chief of Staff played a role in the service’s recent response to Iran’s aerial assault on Israel, he…