“What other school or college allows you to bring a bird of prey to your biology class? It’s amazing.”
— Air Force Academy falconer Cadet third class Ryan Messer
The falcon mascot of the Air Force Academy represents something far more substantive than a prop at a football game or a marketing tool — it’s also the focus of a club that allows cadets to work with the birds of prey daily; network with generals; and spread awareness of the academy.
The Peregrine falcon became the academy’s symbol because the characteristics of the bird — fast as a Formula 1 race car and ability to capture prey in mid-air — were believed to best personify the combat role of the Air Force. The falcons, a gateway to knowledge about the academy and the challenges facing the creatures, are managed by a select team tasked with the care, protection and promotion of the birds.
“The three things that we focus on as a public affairs team is to educate, demonstrate, to rehabilitate birds of prey, specifically falcons,” said Cadet 1st Class Haiden Moody, a falconry team member.
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The program consists of 12-16 falconers — four from each cadet grade level who have to try out — who care for eight Gyr-Saker and Gyr-Peregrine falcon hybrids and illuminate the plight of these raptors to the public.
“We can’t just let anyone work with the birds,” Moody said. “It has to be like the best of the best from each class.”
The falconers have taken the bird show on the road, presenting and displaying at SpaceX rocket launches, Afghan refugee camps and national parks.
“The team, they’re out every game, every football game, they’re there,” said Sam Dollar, program advisor and master falconer. “They do a lot of public appearances around the state, around the country.”
However, education and conservation are the cornerstones of the falconry program.
Team falconer Cadet 3rd Class Ryan Messer said Peregrine falcons became endangered in the 1960s due to their diet of small birds and rodents that consumed pesticide-treated crops. The chemicals softened the falcon eggshells, reducing their survivability rate. Messer said the falcon became the mascot during the 1950s, and the falconry program began educating the public shortly thereafter.
“Back in the day, they did a lot of conservation, and we still do that to this day,” he said. “So, we do a lot of education … just not being the mascot.”
Moody said the academy’s falconry program has unofficially done more to safeguard these birds of prey than many government programs or laws.
Education and awareness aren’t confined to external undertakings only. The team members are allowed to bring the falcons to class, raising a few eyebrows.
“Everybody loves it,” Messer said. “It’s just a huge kind of boost in morale for everyone’s day. What other school or college allows you to bring a bird of prey to your biology class? It’s amazing. And you know, everyone takes out their phones, takes photos. And they put it on their Snapchat.”
Dollar said public awareness of the Air Force Academy through constant promotion is another program mission. Rochelle Kimbrell, falconry team volunteer and former officer-in-charge, said the program works as an effective public relations tool, reaching a broad audience.
“I think it is a bridge for a lot of people to kind of see behind the curtain of the Air Force Academy,” Kimbrell said. “So even like animal lovers will come, and they’ll start to learn a little bit through that … to kind of funnel them to learn about the academy, about falcons, about why we chose the falcon as a mascot.”
But the program is symbiotic. It also enriches the lives of the falconry team participants.
“We’re such a small group of cadets that we bond really quickly and closely with each other,” Messer said. “And that’s something you don’t really get anywhere else in the academy, I feel.”
2nd Lt. Madeline Duckworth, a recent academy graduate, was told by a faculty member that falconry was the most missed opportunity at the academy. The Air Force officer ultimately tried out for the team after arriving in Colorado Springs and was selected. Falconry made a difference in her academy experience, she says.
“Honestly, I think it’s the people that you get to meet,” Duckworth said. “It just grants us a lot of privileges and opportunities that we wouldn’t normally get … just kind of the network that I’ve built from this. There’s so many people that know my name, have my phone number or I have there’s, just because I had a bird on my arm and I got to meet a four-star, three-star general, whatever it may be.”
Duckworth’s after-the-fact consideration of her daily interactions with the falcons has produced an appreciation, reflecting the depth of the falconry mascot team’s mission and the enormity of its task.
“We kind of take that for granted because we get in this routine of like, ‘Yeah, we’re just picking up birds. It’s our job. It’s what we do every single day.’ And then you leave, and you’re like, ‘Holy cow, I was holding a raptor that it takes some people 17 years of training to be able to even touch or own or anything.’ So, it’s just pretty astounding that we get to do that.”
For more information on the Cadet falconers, visit www.usafa.edu/cadet-life/clubs/falconry/.
