Vice President JD Vance visits Colorado for commencement speech at Air Force Academy
Vice President JD Vance delivered the commencement speech for the Air Force Academy Class of 2026 on Thursday. Vance spoke to 931 cadets at Falcon Stadium in Colorado Springs.
After receiving their diplomas, the graduates will enter the Air Force or Space Force, where they will serve a minimum of five years. This is the AFA's 68th commencement ceremony.
Vance arrived in Colorado Springs on Wednesday night before the graduation ceremony on Thursday.
Vance had a message for the graduates about the future.
"Members of the Class of 2026, you're graduating into one of those eras where that reality, that unpredictability of warfare, is becoming impossible to ignore. Now, your nation, your Vice President, and the President of the United States, who sends his very best, we ask you to apply that same adaptability, that same innovation that you learned in this academy to an entirely new era of warfare, one shaped by autonomous systems, AI, and cyber operations technologies evolving far faster than military institutions have distortedly been accustomed to," said Vance.
Vance is a Marine Corps veteran who served active duty from 2003 to 2007.
Vance also addressed the current situation with Iran, "It is American air power that allows us to penetrate and deny airspace and strike critical targets across enormous distances with speed and precision, and when the President says he will not allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon, it is the men and women he will join in just 60 days who give force to that promise and to that guarantee now, because you will keep your end of the market with bravery and skill and dedication, you should expect some things out of your civilian leadership, out of the president, the vice president, the secretary of war."
Vance expressed how impressed he is with the class of 2026, so much so that he already hired a member for a summer internship. Cadet 1st Class Mark Tang, now a second lieutenant, is the Academy's first Space Force Marshall Scholar.
"Consider this your first meeting with the new boss," Vance joked.
The commencement concluded with a flyover by the Air Force Thunderbirds.
Air Force Secretary Troy E. Meink was last year's commencement speaker.
