Our Sesquicentennial

Bernard Lewis “Barney” Smith 1909 was a visionary pilot and engineer for the U.S. Marine Corps. The first Hokie to become a licensed aviator in 1913, he developed aerial reconnaissance and close air support tactics that were used during the Mexican Expedition.

The Naval air attaché to France during the European war, he flew in combat with the French. On return, he received the Aero Club of America’s Medal of Merit for 1918 for perfectly flying the Navy’s new C-1 dirigible from Ohio to Long Island via Washington, D.C. He also designed and tested the Curtiss HA Dunkirk Fighter. He was then assigned as the logistics officer for Cmdr. Richard Byrd’s cross-Atlantic flight.

Dunn K. Steele 1908 was the first Techman to become an Army aviator. He learned how to fly at Wright Field and was enlisted into the Signal Enlisted Reserve Corps as a “Flying Sergeant.” He was assigned as a flight instructor at the militarized Curtiss schools. He left the service and became an airmail pilot, then started his own flight school in Roanoke, Virginia.

C.E. “Chick” Sugden 1909 was the first Techman to become a Coast Guard aviator. He commanded the naval air station at Tudey, France, during World War I, flying the HS-1L.

John P. Richter 1911 flew with the 22nd Aero Squadron during World War I. After the war, he was part of the first aerial refueling mission over San Diego, California.

Oliver P. Echols 1912 served as Gen. Billy Mitchell’s operations officer during World War I. He took command of the 1st Observation Group. During World War II, he was the officer who built Gen. Hap Arnold’s air power fleet.

Robert Eoff 1917 joined the American Volunteer Ambulance Corps in France, then the Lafayette Flying Corps. He was credited with one “kill.” He transferred to the Army Air Service’s 95th Pursuit Squadron, then flew night missions with the 185th Pursuit Squadron.

John R. Castleman 1919 flew during World War I in the 99th Observation Squadron and was credited with two “kills” with one unconfirmed. Upon his return to campus, he graduated and became a tenured professor until the 1960s.

— Col. Joseph Reich ’75

From June 27-29, 1923, World War I veteran pilot 1st Lt. John Paul Richter 1911, along with 1st Lt Lowell Smith as pilot, set a world aerial refueling record of 37 hours, 15 minutes, and 14.5 seconds over Rockwell Field, San Diego, California. Flying in a DH-4, Richter handled the refueling hose to keep the aircraft fueled. Nourishment consisted of sandwiches and canteen water.

Capt. Charles B.D. Collyer 1919, U.S. Army Reserve, set a “Round the World” “Beat the Moon” record from June 28 to July 22, 1928 (23 days,15 hours, 21 minutes). With a fellow aviator, he flew a Fairchild NX5501 named “City of New York.” They published a book, “Around the World in 23 Days.”

Then, flying the Lockheed Vega X4769 “Yankee Doodle,” he set a record flying from New York to Los Angeles of 24 hours, 55 minutes.

After a rest period, he attempted to set a record from Los Angeles to New York, but crashed and was killed in the Arizona Mountains on Nov. 3, 1928. He started his military career as enlisted in the Signal Enlisted Reserve Corps in 1917.

— Col. Joseph Reich ’75

Army Reservist and Curtiss Aircraft test pilot Maj. Robert W. Fausel ’35, lead pilot on the CW-21 "Demon" fighter that was rejected by the U.S. Army ("It took a genius to land it."), took the prototype to China, who contracted for it. Fausel took the prototype, now armed, up a few times. On one sortie in April 1939, he claimed to have shot down a Fiat bomber. In 1941, Fausel set a dive record in the P-40 of 661 mph.

He also flew the variants of the P-36 Hawk and P-40 Warhawk during development.

Maj. Gen. Oliver Patton Echols 1912, stationed at Wright Field in the late 1930s, played a key role in the production of U.S. aircraft preparing for World War II. A member of Gen. Billy Mitchell’s aviation arm of the American Expeditionary Force during World War I, he ended up chief of the air service for 1st Corps. He was the chief engineer at Wright Field as World War II approached, directing the construction of the B-17, B-24, B-29, and fighter aircraft, numbering in the tens of thousands. He also began development of the B-36, B-47, and B-52 aircraft. He was also Gen. Hap Arnold’s representative on the Manhattan Project. Arnold’s staff referred to Echols as the “man who won World War II.”

Brig. Gen. William S. Gravely 1911 was the operations officer for the 19th Bombardment Group when it won the 1937 Fairchild Trophy. At the onset of World War II, he built and commanded “Base X” in the Gallapagos Archepalego, where B-24s patrolled the Pacific entrance to the Panama Canal.

Navy Reserve Lt. Bernard Smith 1910 developed two “tailless” aircraft during the 1930s, The “Arrowhead” biplane and a monoplane. He successfully flew the “Arrowhead,” but crashed and was injured in the challenging, sleek mono-winged craft. Activated and returned to the Marine Corps for World War II, he was put in charge of the Marine flak balloon program and later retired as a colonel.

— Col. Joseph Reich ’75

At the beginning of the momentous decade of the 1940s, Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical College and Polytechnic Institute continued its growth against the backdrop of a new European war, having added a fourth battalion in 1939.

With the attack on Pearl Harbor at the end of 1941, the school went into full-time mode with the addition of a summer quarter for the remainder of the war. The size of the Corps shrank, as most able-bodied cadets were enlisted into the Army.

Many cadets left for war before completing their degrees, with almost 8,000 students and alumni serving in uniform. Many of these earned their wings and flew a multitude of aircraft, many notably.

Jim Diefenderfer ‘41 piloted his B-17 Flying Fortress on hazardous missions in the southwest Pacific. Beyond that, he used his engineering skills to modify his bomber to be more survivable with additional defensive guns.

Ben Tate ’42 was credited with sinking the Japanese carrier HIYO with his TBF Avenger torpedo bomber. Robert Femoyer ’44 earned the Medal of Honor for navigating his damaged B-17 bomber to safety before succumbing to his injuries.

James van Pelt ’40 was the navigator on the B-29 that dropped the atomic bomb on Nagasaki, Japan.

Many of our alumni were credited with shooting down enemy aircraft, notably Henry Kucheman ‘49 who achieved ace status and later rose to the rank of major general in the Air force. Easley Smith ’45 epitomized his generation, leaving school during his sophomore year, flying 25 combat missions in his B-24 Liberator bomber, and returning to the States before turning 21 years old.

With the end of World War II, a flood of veterans came to Blacksburg to either start or continue their academic careers, and veterans were not required to be in the Corps. This meant that the institute had more civilian students than cadets for the first time in its history.

— Col. Rock Roszak ’71

By 1950, things had settled down on campus. The vast number of World War II veterans graduated, and the Corps began to steadily grow again, though it did not match its pre-war size until 1959.

The world situation brought about another major military conflict when North Korea invaded the South in 1950, and our gradates again served above the front lines, this time often in jet combat.

Baird Martin ’50, who would long organize reunions of his Highty-Tighty classmates, flew the F-80 Shooting Star over Korea.

Richard “Perky” Perkins ’42, who flew 90 World War II combat missions in the P-51, flew another 100 combat missions over Korea in the venerable Mustang.

Ed Blair ’46, who was posthumously inducted into Virginia Tech’s Aviation Wall of Fame in 2005, flew combat missions over Korea in the F-94 Starfire. It was his second war, having left Virginia Polytechnic Institute in 1943 to see combat over Germany in World War II as a B-17 navigator. His lifetime of service continued with his third conflict when he was a forward air controller during the Vietnam War. He was shot down and declared missing in action in 1968.

Others continued to fly after the war.

Capt. Kenneth Cassada ’49, future Air Force Maj. Gen. Hank Smyth ’49, and future Pamplin College of Business instructor Jeff Stewart ’53 all flew the famed F-86 Sabre Jet.

Along with these jet pilots, Highty-Tighty alumnus Mayer Levy ’55 flew the propeller driven AD-6 Skyraider for the U.S. Navy from the USS Forrestal in the latter years of the decade.

For the remainder of the 1950s, the Corps and the campus showed a steady increase in enrollment. Virginia Polytechnic Institute remained a senior military college, with all able-bodied male freshmen required to be cadets for their first two years. But that would soon change.

— Col. Rock Roszak ’71

The early part of the 1960s saw America booming, but things began to change on campus.

T. Marshall Hahn became president, at the time the youngest president of any land-grant institution in the country. He began a process that changed Virginia Polytechnic Institute from a mostly male military college into the comprehensive university that we have today. And the Corps of Cadets, which had been a requirement for male students since its founding, became fully optional.

Virginia Tech’s alumni claimed a rich aviation heritage during the 1960s. Many alumni serving in the Air Force flew the full spectrum of Century Series fighters: Jim Branscome ’63 flew the F-100 Super Sabre, Jim Beard ’54 captained the F-101 Voodoo, while Cliff Cole ’64 flew the sleek F-106 Delta Dart.

In the Army, John Cahoon ’59 flew the L-19 Bird Dog in Germany, while Bob Aumack ’50 flew lead for the Blue Angels, the Navy’s precision flight demonstration team.

High above all of these, John “Jack” McKay ’47 piloted the X-15 experimental rocket plane, earning the astronaut wings he was posthumously awarded in 2005.

But war was brewing in southeast Asia, and by the end of the decade, alumni were again fully embroiled in combat. Maj. D.R. “Duke” Stanton ’59 flew his Marine A-4 Skyhawk into combat from Chu Lai Airbase in the Republic of Vietnam, the same base that fellow Marine Capt. Floyd Massey ’65 launched from in his F-4 Phantom on the day he was shot down, April 28, 1969 — though he was thankfully rescued.

Tom Richards ’56, who would become our first alumnus to achieve four-star rank, flew the T-28 Trojan with the 56th Air Commando Wing from Udorn Airbase, Thailand.

Lt. Col. Robert Titus ’48, logged three MiG kills in his F-4 Phantom, making him one of the highest scoring Air Force pilots of the war.

The country was changing, too, and the campus became restive as the decade drew to a close. The size of the Corps steadily dwindled, even as the college began an unprecedented period of growth.

— Col. Rock Roszak ’71

The 1970s brought continued change to the university and to the Corps of Cadets.

Campus unrest at the beginning of the decade intensified after the shooting at Kent State, with several incidents of protest and destruction occurring locally. 

Corps numbers continued to steadily decline until the middle of the decade.

Corps alumni were still engaged in combat operations in the Vietnam War, some of them notably so. Lt. j.g. Leslie M. “Sandy” Sandford ’68 flew combat missions against North Vietnam from the aircraft carrier USS Saratoga in 1972. On June 11, 1972, Lt. W. Winston “Mad Dog” Copeland ’67, who would later rise to the rank of rear admiral, shot down a North Vietnamese MiG-17 while escorting a flight of A-7 Corsair II attack aircraft.

When the war ended and the nation returned to a peacetime footing, our alumni continued to fly in defense of the country.

Capt. Malcom Emerson ’69 flew the F-106 Delta Dart with the 48th Fighter Interceptor Squadron at Langley Air Force Base, Virginia. 1st Lt. Randy Thurman ’71 of the 23rd Tactical Air Support Squadron flew the OV-10 Bronco in the Pacific Air Forces. Lt. Col. W. Park “Whitey” Lemmond ’54 flew the F-105 Thunderchief with the 192nd Fighter Wing of the Virginia Air National Guard. Capt. R.S. “Rock” Roszak ’71, future Corps alumni director, flew operational and test missions in the B-52 Stratofortress in the 7th Bomb Wing at Carswell Air Force Base, Texas.

And 1st Lt. Lance Smith ’70, who would later fly the A-10 and F-16 in Korea, the F-15E in Iraq and Afghanistan, and go on to become Virginia Tech’s second graduate to achieve four-star rank, flew 123 combat missions in the A-1 Skyraider in Vietnam in 1971-1972.

Things began to look slightly better for the cadet corps in the latter half of the decade.  Under the leadership of new commandant Brigadier General Earl Acuff and university president Dr. William E. Lavery, corps enrollment rose slightly for the first time since the program became fully optional in 1963.

— Col. Rock Roszak ’71

The university continued its sustained growth throughout the 1980s. 

For the first half of that decade, the Corps of Cadets grew with it, reaching its post-1963 peak in 1984 at 723 cadets. 

In the aviation community, the services were still re-defining themselves after the end of the Vietnam War, with new aircraft coming into operational use. 

Early in the decade tragedy struck. Maj. Norm “Chip” Lowry ’66 had been selected to lead the Air Force’s precision flight demonstration team, The Thunderbirds. While practicing a line abreast loop maneuver on Jan. 18, 1982, an instrument error in his T-38 Talon aircraft led to all four aircraft crashing in one of the worst demonstration aircraft accidents in history.

Perhaps one of the most interesting alumni aviation experiences happened to Mike Roy ’74. He spent his entire adult life in aviation, flying for the Air Force, Air National Guard, and finally as an airline pilot, piloting more than 15 types of aircraft. But his most unique mount was the Soviet MiG-21 “Fishbed C,” which he flew while assigned to the 4477th Test and Evaluation Squadron over the Tonapah Test Range in 1985.

Dave Gato ’71 began the ‘80s flying with Navy fighter squadron VF-301 in the F-4 Phantom and ended the decade in the F-14 Tomcat.

Future Corps fundraiser Lt. Col. Dave Spracher ’70 flew the C-130 Hercules through the decade, culminating in his taking command of the 21st Tactical Airlift Squadron at Yakota Airbase, Japan, in 1989.

In the mid-1980s, the size of the Corps again went into a decline that would not abate until the early 1990s. That turn around started with the appointment of a new commandant in 1989, Maj. Gen. Stan Musser.

— Col. Rock Roszak ’71

The 1990s were a significant period, both for our nation in the global arena and for the Corps of Cadets.

On the international scene, Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait began an extended period of warfare and terrorism that is still being felt today. 

In Blacksburg, Henry Dekker ’44, Charles Cornelison ’67, and Harold Hoback ’53 joined together to form the Virginia Tech Corps of Cadets Alumni Association, without which our program would not exist today.

Militarily, the relative period of peace that followed the Vietnam War ended abruptly in 1990, and our alumni aviators immediately went from peaceful flight hours to the combat footing that remains the norm today, over 30 years later. 

In this new period of conflict, female aviators were now a force to be reckoned with, and the helicopter became more of a combat force than many ever expected.

1st Lt. Kathleen Burr ’86 was a UH-1 Huey pilot who deployed to Saudi Arabia almost immediately at the beginning of Operation Desert Shield and stayed through Operation Desert Storm. She continued to serve in a variety of roles on active duty and in the Army Reserve, including flying the Huey and later the CH-47 Chinook, until finally being promoted to the rank of colonel after graduating from the Army War College. 

Her classmate Kerry Koritko ’86 also flew helicopters, including the CH-47. As an Army captain, he was the pilot in charge of the first paradrop over Iraq in 1991. 

Later in the decade, even though air combat continued through a variety of presence and denial operations, normal training activities continued in the United States.

Lt. Col. Bruce “Pop” Adams ’82 began his eight-year association with the B-2 Spirit in the 509th Bomb Wing. He would eventually fly the stealth bomber over Lane Stadium in October 2002, a flyover that people still talk about today.

By the end of the 1990s, because of the efforts of the Corps leadership and the Corps alumni, the future of the program had been assured. The Corps of Cadets was on a growth trajectory that continues to this day.

— Col. Rock Roszak ’71

With the dawning of the new century came challenges our country had not seen in several generations. 

The terrorist attacks of 9/11 brought a sense of national unity and service that had not existed for half a century. 

Capt. Carrie Bell Reinhardt ’97, who recently retired after multiple flight test assignments that culminated as a developmental flight test squadron commander, flew combat air patrol missions over Los Angeles, San Francisco, and the 2002 Winter Olympics in the days and years after the 9/11 attacks.

Many of her fellow alumni aviators have spent the past 20-plus years on active duty with our military services conducting combat operations on an almost daily basis.

Operations Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan and Iraqi Freedom in Iraq saw our aviators serving in unparalleled ways.

Lt. j.g. Jennifer Daniel ’99 flew intense combat missions over Northern Iraq in her F-14 Tomcat with Fighter Squadron 32 “Swordsmen” in the opening days of the 2003 conflict. Capt. Chris Foulk ’97 did the same in the F-15E Strike Eagle with the 4th Fighter Wing. Maj. Phil Buck ’82 flew attack missions into Iraq in the F-117 Nighthawk stealth fighter.

Army Capt. Janel McNair ’00 flew her UH-60A Blackhawk on harrowing MEDEVAC missions in Afghanistan, including one that recovered the body of former NFL player and Army Ranger Pat Tillman. Capt. Brande Goracke ’01 flew combat missions in her AH-64 Apache gunship with the 1st Armored Division in Iraq.

Marine Capt. Joe McAlarnen ’01 flew his AH-1 Super Cobra gunship on several tours of duty. Cmdr. Valerie Overstreet ’91 commanded the Navy’s Airborne Early Warning Squadron VAW-117 aboard the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz late in the decade.

Everyday flight operations continued, too. Early in the decade, F-16 Viper pilot Lt. Col. Russell “Waldo” Walden ’82 turned command of the 80th Fighter Squadron over to Lt. Col. John “Barney” Fyfe ’84 at Kunsan Airbase, South Korea. Lt. Col. Phil “Dirt” Fluhr ’85 completed his Air Force career as the operations officer of the 358th Fighter Squadron flying the A-10 Warthog in 2006. Cmdr. Tommy “Yams” Yambrick ’87 served a tour as the commander of the F/A-18F Super Hornet-equipped Strike Fighter Squadron 102 “Diamondbacks” while assigned to USS Kitty Hawk, forward-based at Atsugi Airbase, Japan in 2006-2007.

Navy Lt. Nick Brantley ’01 made the ultimate sacrifice when he lost his life during night training operations off the Carolina coast on Sept. 25, 2005, in his SH-60 Seahawk helicopter. He was the third member of the Class of 2001 to have his name added to the Ut Prosim Pylon on the War Memorial.

— Col. Rock Roszak ’71

The decade of the 2010s saw big time changes in the Corps of Cadets. 

Commandant Maj. Gen. Jerry Allen retired and the new commandant, Maj. Gen. Randal Fullhart, came on the scene in 2011.

This decade brought the Corps two much-needed new residence halls, Pearson Halls East and West, and they were fostered into the perfect domiciles for our cadets, resplendent in architectural functionality, tradition, and heritage.

In the air in the 2010s, our alumni continued serving the nation during a period of near constant combat operations, many of them in new platforms that proved key to fighting a very different kind of war. 

Capt. Tyler Martin ’08 flew intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance missions with the 34th Special Operations Squadron as a combat systems officer in the Pilatus U-28 recce aircraft. 

Marine Maj. Matthew Gioia ’95 had several combat deployments and began the decade flying the CH-46 Sea Knight helicopter from Marine Corps Air Station Futenma, Okinawa, Japan.

After beginning his career flying the B-52 Stratofortress with the 5th and 2nd Bomb Wings, Col. Jeremiah Baldwin ’95 became the 8th Air Force director of operations and then the National Airborne Operations Center commander before retiring from the Air Force in 2020.

Col. Bob Shelton ’96, who recently joined the Corps’ staff, capped his career of piloting the KC-135 Stratotanker and the C-5 Galaxy as the commander of the storied “Bloody Hundredth,” 100th Operations Group stationed at Royal Air Force Base Mildenhall, United Kingdom. 

The Navy ROTC program did not begin at Virginia Tech until the mid-1980s, but in the new century the number of Navy grads who rose to command operational squadrons is amazing. 

Capt. John “Tater” Springett ’87 spent his career in the electronic warfare business, commanding two squadrons, and in 2012, he was the commanding officer, Electronic Attack Wing, U.S. Pacific Fleet. 

Also in the electronic warfare community was Marine Capt. Dan “Hodor” Langford ’10, who crewed the EA-6B Prowler from Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar in 2018. 

Cmdr. Mark “Beav” Leavitt ’93 served as both executive officer and commanding officer of Antisubmarine Helicopter Squadron HS-5 “Nightdippers” with two deployments into the Northern Arabian Sea in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. 

And Cmdr. Stacy Michaels-Uttecht ’00 commanded the Fighting Swordsmen of VFA-32, an F/A-18F Super Hornet Squadron, from 2018-2019. 

— Col. Rock Roszak ’71

The current decade sees the Corps of Cadets continuing to grow in both the number of cadets and on the facilities side of things. 

The Upper Quad is once again a construction zone as the new Corps Leadership and Military Science Building and a third new residence hall are in work, bringing the program to a total footprint of four modern buildings with the tailor shop and Lane Hall also still productively engaged.

With the reduction of the American presence in the Middle East, the U.S. military is pivoting to embrace a more global perspective, though combat operations continue. Our alumni aviators remain engaged in various operations across the board.

Brig. Gen. Will Marshall ’97, our latest graduate to achieve flag rank, is serving as a deputy director of operations at U.S. Air Forces in Europe Headquarters in Germany. A highlight of his career was commanding the 48th Fighter Wing at Royal Air Force Lakenheath, United Kingdom, in 2019, when he led F-15E Strike Eagles in heritage markings over the Normandy beaches on the 75th anniversary of Operation Overlord.

Cmdr. David Dartez ’01 has spent most of his career flying both the F/A-18C Legacy Hornet and the F/A-18E Super Hornet. He recently finished a tour as executive officer and then commander of Navy Fighter/Attack Squadron VFA-25 “Fist of the Fleet” in 2020. He is now assigned to the director, operational test and evaluation, under the Office of the Secretary of Defense in Washington, D.C.

Similarly, Cmdr. Matt Enos ’02 is currently the executive officer of the “Red Rippers” of Strike Fighter Squadron 11 and will take command of that Navy squadron in December.

Air Force Capt. Savannah Bailey ’15 is currently assigned to Pensacola Naval Air Station as an instructor and flight commander in the 451st Flying Training Squadron. As a combat systems officer on the MC-130J Commando II, she deployed to Bagram Airbase, Afghanistan, in support of Operation Enduring Freedom, where she was awarded two air medals for flying 44 combat missions.

Capt. Matt Pucci ’15 completed a highlight of his life by piloting his C-17 Globemaster III into and out of the Kabul airport several times during the recent evacuation of Afghanistan. Maj. Adam Cade ’10 of the 41st Rescue Squadron flew his HH-60W Jolly Green II Air Force rescue helicopter over this fall’s Virginia Tech-Syracuse football game and then conducted a static display on the Drillfield for cadets and the local community. He will return to campus in May as an assistant professor of aerospace studies with Air Force ROTC Detachment 875.

The decade is still young, and our alumni aviators will continue to fly, and fight, to keep our nation free.

— Col. Rock Roszak ’71