Air 
Force Academy officials broke ground on the new building for the school’s Center for Character and Leadership Development. “The CCLD building is an iconic architectural concept that symbolically states our commitment to character and leadership development,” said Duane Boyle, deputy director of the academy’s installations directorate, in the school’s Oct. 23 release. The ground-breaking ceremony took place on the academy campus in Colorado Springs, Colo., on Oct. 19. Academy officials estimate that it will take 22 months to complete the new $40 million building, construction of which private donations partially are funding, states the release. Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, the architectural firm that originally planned the academy’s campus, is overseeing the project. The academy established the CCLD in 1993.
Gene Smith, Former POW and AFA Chair, Dies at 91
Jan. 19, 2026
Lt. Col. Richard “Gene” Smith, who overcame five and a half years as a prisoner of war in the notorious Hanoi Hilton from 1967 until 1973, died Jan. 16. He was one day short of his 91st birthday.
