COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — Defense Secretary Jim Mattis delivered a rousing commencement speech Wednesday to a group of 984 Air Force Academy graduates in Colorado, telling them to “hold the line” in protecting the U.S.
Mattis looked out over the crowd of white cadet caps in the academy’s football stadium and told the soon-to-be officers that they will soon be taking the lead in a long history of service that dates back to the Doolittle Raiders and Tuskegee airmen of World War II.
“Growing up as witnesses to the longest stretch of combat in our nation’s history, every single one of you could have chosen a different college, a different profession, a different path, paths that would undoubtedly have been far less demanding than what this academy asked of you these past four years,” Mattis said.
The secretary is on a two-day trip to Colorado Springs that includes the graduation and a change of command ceremony at U.S. Northern Command.
“When I joined the military … I was 18 years old, and I never could have pictured I would be here, standing here in front of you trying to wax eloquent with something that you might find of value,” Mattis told the crowd.
He said the graduates will be going on to become aircraft and drone pilots, space officers, combat systems officers, missileers, intelligence officers and engineers. Over 400 of the graduates are set to begin pilot training, 69 will train to pilot drones, and 114 will attend graduate school at top-tier colleges such as Oxford, Yale, Harvard, and Stanford, according to an academy breakdown.
“You now stand ready to hold the line, to protect America’s experiment in democracy with all the cunning, ferocity and grit you have inside of you,” Mattis said.
