Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice last week received the 2009 Thomas D. White National Defense Award from the Air Force Academy. The academy has presented this award annually since 1962 to a US citizen who has contributed significantly to nation’s defense and security. Rice accepted the award Aug. 26 during a visit to the school. She said she was humbled to enter the company of the previous award recipients, who include Gen. Curtis LeMay, Gen. Bernard Schriever, Gen. Carl Spaatz, Army Gen. Colin Powell, and former Sen. John Glenn. “Thank you for believing in this great country,” she said to academy cadets during her award ceremony. Currently a professor at Stanford University in Palo Alto, Calif., Rice served as national security advisor and later as Secretary of State to President George W. Bush. (Colorado Springs report by SSgt. Don Branum)
Matthew Lohmeier, who was fired from a Space Force squadron command just two years ago, took another step in his unlikely journey to the Department of the Air Force's No. 2 job May 1, testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee that his background as an Air Force F-15C pilot…