The Graduate Heritage Projects

The Jabara Award for Airmanship


The Air Force Academy, in conjunction with the Jabara family and the Association of Graduates, established the Colonel James Jabara Award for Airmanship on January 5, 1967.

With 15 kills, Colonel Jabara was the second leading Air Force ace of the Korean War. Colonel Jabara was the First American Jet Ace. Each year the U.S. Air Force Academy and the Association of Graduates present the Colonel James Jabara Award to an Academy graduate or graduates whose airmanship contributions are of great significance and set them apart from their contemporaries.

In early 2013 The Friends took on the challenge of creating a database detailing the lives of graduates honored with the Jabara Award. As part of a multi-year heritage project supported by The Friends of The Academy Library, this effort reflects The Friends commitment to being a premiere Academy organization in recording and preserving the heritage of the Air Force Academy. The project’s continuing goal is to assemble all the available material dealing with the adult lives of these Air Force Academy graduates and future award recipients.

Previously there was no central location for information about these recipients nor was much of the existing information readily accessible. Thus far hundreds of pages of written and photographic documentation has been collected, scanned, electronically filed, indexed, and made accessible. Procedures have been established for updating these files as more information onaward recipients is acquired, and adding files as other recipients are selected. If you have any information you wish to be considered for inclusion in this database, please contact The Friends. We encourage you to enjoy the fruits of this historic project. The Friends believe this project will have a lasting impact for decades to come, indeed as long as the Academy exists.

The graduate database is currently in the process of being migrated from legacy software to a more modern, user accessible interface. Until complete, data will be unavailable. Please check back frequently as this process continues.

 


Donald Stevens
Class of 1960
1968
Terry Joris
Class of 1961
1969
Karl Richter
Class of 1964
1969
Wayne Warner
Class of 1963
1970
Neil Crist
Class of 1966
1971
Steve Ritchie
Class of 1964
1972

Dale Stovall
Class of 1967
1973
Robert Lodge
Class of 1964
1974
Donald Backlund
Class of 1971
1975
Ronald Rand
Class of 1971
1975
Michael Love
Class of 1960
1976
Roger Carleton
Class of 1967
1977

Wayne Kendal
Class of 1960
1978
Mart Bushnell
Class of 1964
1979
Thomas LaPlante
Class of 1961
1980
William Gillin
Class of 1973
1981
Robert Brenci
Class of 1963
1982
Karol Bobko
Class of 1959
1983

Neal Coyle
Class of 1972
1983
Michael Davis
Class of 1978
1984
James Allburn
Class of 1963
1985
Larry Faber
Class of 1973
1986
James Trinka
Class of 1978
1987
Marc Felman
Class of 1976
1988

Thomas Ferguson
Class of 1981
1988
Robert Schnick
Class of 1972
1989
Francis Gabreski
Class of 1981
1990
William Andrews
Class of 1980
1991
Corby Martin
Class of 1980
1992
Ali Frohlich
Class of 1980
1993

James Sills
Class of 1974
1994
Harold Waters Jr.
Class of 1985
1995
Robert Donnelly Jr.
Class of 1977
1996
David Scott
Class of 1978
1997
Daniel Flynn
Class of 1991
1998
Peter Gersten
Class of 1989
1999

James Cardoso
Class of 1988
2000
Julian Chesnutt
Class of 1989
2001
Henry Thompson
Class of 1987
2002
Leighton
Anderson Jr.

Class of 1992
2003
Edward Lengel
Class of 1992
2003
Jason Hanover
Class of 1992
2004

Keith Schultz
Class of 1979
2005
John Vargas
Class of 1996
2006
Jonathan Graham
Class of 1999
2008
Travis Burton
Class of 2000
2009
Chelsey Sullenbeger III
Class of 1973
2009
Prichard Keely
Class of 2004
2010

Michal Polidor
Class of 2004
2011
Joseph Hext
Class of 2002
2012
Christopher McConnell
Class of 2005
2013
Charles Napier
Class of 2006
2014
Kyle Babbitt
Class of 2008
2015
Matthew Kuta
Class of 2005
2016

Brian Guyette
Class of 2008
2017
Marc Catalano
Class of 2006
2018
Tyler Hague
Class of 1998
2019
Caitlin Reilly
Class of 2007
2019
Alexander Boules
Class of 2015
2020
J. Cameron Dilts
Class of 2010
2021

   
Eric Goral
Class of 2010
2022
Tyler Ringwald
Class of 2011
2022
Kirby Wedan
Class of 2012
2022
Richard Yount
Class of 2014
2023