Checkpoints Magazine

Become a member today, and we'll mail Checkpoints to you four times a year: March, June, September and December. To submit information for Class News, visit your class website and e-mail your Class Scribe.

Selected stories from recent issues of Checkpoints:

• After the Fall
  By Andrea Brown, The Gazette

  Air Force Academy cadet Thomas Avolio accepts his notoriety.
  "I don't want to be identified as the guy who fell down Eagle Peak," he said. "But I know it will be that way." Avolio, who fell 200 feet on a hike in April, 2006, returned to classes this week.
  After a quick noontime speech in the chow hall packed with about 4,000 peers, the thin 22-year-old Washington state native shared a private table with academy brass and the three cadets who helped save him.

• The A-26 Nimrods and the Secret War in Laos
  By Col. (Ret.) Roger Graham, '63

  Except for USAF Air Commando and Special Operations combatants who fought in the Vietnam War, and the A-26 pilots and navigators who flew the incredible A-26A Counter Invader in the "Secret War in Laos" in 1966-69, few Americans are familiar with the Nimrod story. I hope you have had an opportunity to read classmate Col. (Ret.) Jimmie Butler's article titled "USAFA's Forward Air Controller Heritage" in the Checkpoints publication dated December 2007. In that article, Col. Butler describes the key Forward Air Controller role that thousands of courageous Air Force pilots and navigators played 24/7 over the battlefields of Southeast Asia. I consider this article to be a natural follow-on to Col. Butler's article. The A-26 Nimrods had the highest respect for FAC crews during combat operations, and routinely teamed up with FAC crews to locate and strike targets. Even today, we are proud of that common heritage, and we are truly humble about our "certain brotherhood" that served during the Vietnam War.

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Checkpoints staff:

Bob McAllister, Director of Communications
Ken Wright, Editor & Photographer
Sarah Wright, Senior Designer
Tom Kroboth, Class News Editor
Kyle Davidson, Assistant Director of Marketing
Matt Kleve, Assistant Director of Media