Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David L. Goldfein on Feb. 27, 2020, approved immediately updating a crucial verse of the official Air Force song to make it inclusive and to “reflect all of us and who we aspire to be.”
Goldfein made the announcement about changes to the third verse to more than 2,000 Airmen, industry officials and retirees during a joint appearance with Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force Kaleth O. Wright at the Air Force Association’s Air Warfare Symposium.
The third verse serves as the U.S. Air Force Academy’s school song and is sung after athletic games. Goldfein also suggested further changes to the Air Force song might be considered.
“I want to open a conversation here, which I hope to have over the next few months about whether we also want to update the first verse,” he said. “I can tell you a number of stories of women who have been giving them the gun throughout the ages but especially most recently as all combat positions are open.
“So I think it’s an important discussion to have. I’m also very respectful of the fact we’ve been singing the song at funerals and different events. It’s part of who we are and I personally think it’s time to update that to reflect all of us,” Goldfein said.
Goldfein said he vividly understood how the male-centric words clashed with the modern Air Force after the Academy’s women’s volleyball team won a tournament that was held at the Pentagon.
“We sung our third verse of the Air Force song” that included the words, “A toast to the host of the men we boast” and “It was very clear to me it was an exclusive song,” he said. “Not intentionally, it was written at a different time. But it was exclusive. And the energy of that team couldn’t have been lower. It was just wrong.”
Under the change, the lyrics to the new verse are:
Here’s a toast to the host
Of those who love the vastness of the sky,
To a friend we send a message of the brave who serve on high.
We drink to those who gave their all of old,
Then down we roar to score the rainbow’s pot of gold.
A toast to the host of those we boast, the U.S. Air Force!
Goldfein said he moved slowly, recognizing the status of the song and the emotions it could trigger. “We started down this path and I actually started having a lot of conversations with both men and women about our Air Force song which is a part of who we are and it defines us. The cadets themselves came up with what they thought was the better third verse.”
Goldfein’s explanation during the session with Wright mirrored a deeper discourse he provided Feb. 27 in a published commentary.
Wright embraced the change as well.
“That is a relevant conversation but it has to be balanced against what’s appropriate for our Airmen who are in the Air Force today?” he said. “So the world is changing. The Air Force is changing. Lots of things are changing. We talk a lot about diversity and inclusion; we have to take a look at those traditions that are written and unwritten.
“We got a lot of opinions from males and females, young and old about this,” Wright said. Goldfein “made sure he had a real kind of global perspective on this and what it might mean.”
The discussion of the Air Force song was one part of a broader conversation and question period Goldfein and Wright had with those in the auditorium. The hour-long session touched on topics as diverse as leadership, what the Air Force is doing to reduce the number of suicides, to the legacy that Goldfein and Wright hope to leave when their tenures end June 30 for Goldfein and in September for Wright.
How the change will ultimately be received is unclear, but when Goldfein announced the new lyrics there was sustained applause in the auditorium.
Goldfein also insisted that his personal experience with modern warfare affirmed his decision.
“As chief I visit Arlington a lot … especially on Memorial Day and I visit all the Airmen I lost that were under my watch when I was a commander in Central Command,” Goldfein said in explaining why the male-only references in the third version were replaced by lyrics that are gender neutral.
“And side by side there were men and women. Combat is like that. Combat doesn’t discriminate and neither should we,” he said.
Updating our alma mater to celebrate all of us
(Additional commentary by Gen. David L. Goldfein, Air Force Chief of Staff)
As a second-generation Airman and an Air Force Academy graduate, I cherish our storied heritage and the sacrifices of all the trailblazers who made our Academy and the Air Force what they are today. As the 21st chief of staff, I am equally proud of today’s exceptional men and women who make us the greatest Air Force on the planet.
Holding dear these two unmistakable realities — our rich heritage and who we are today — underpin my decision to update the U.S. Air Force Song. I have authorized Lt. Gen. Jay Silveria, Class of 1985, USAFA superintendent, to use a new version of the third verse of the U.S. Air Force Song, our Alma Mater, that better reflects the reality of today’s force by celebrating all who have — and will — step up to serve.
Most of us can remember standing in Falcon Stadium or at Clune Arena facing West Point (U.S. Military Academy) or Annapolis (U.S. Naval Academy) cadets following a spectacular win at 6,000 feet. Over the past two years, I have been honored to attend the women’s service academy volleyball tournament played at the Pentagon. Our team crushed the competition last year. At the end of the match, I stood with our brave women and sang our alma mater.
These are the women we will ask to go into combat and fight just as women have done for a generation. Yet this version of the song, their alma mater, was not about them. The version we all sang offered, “a toast to the host of the men we boast.” Across the court stood athletes from Annapolis, which changed its alma mater in 2004, and those from West Point, whose song changed in 2008. It is time for us to change.
Last year, a team of Airmen and cadets at the Academy updated the lyrics based on bedrock principles. Our song must reflect our history, the inspiring service and accomplishments of all who’ve served, and the rich diversity that makes today’s Air Force indisputably the strongest and most capable in the world. While I’ve asked Gen. Silveria and our Air Force Academy to lead this change, we’ll also take a hard look at whether further updates may be warranted for the other verses of the song.
Valid as this rationale is, these changes will draw notice and spark debate. The Air Force song is such a powerful and enduring touchstone that has been sung at countless funerals and ceremonies. Changing it will elicit emotions and opinions.
This is why I must be clear. In making this decision, I respect the views of others who will not agree. But I also know with absolute certainty and clarity that these changes are about adding to, not subtracting from, who we are. Changing the lyrics in no way diminishes the history and accomplishments of men or dilutes our eternal gratitude for their sacrifice and bravery.
These new lyrics speak more accurately to all we do, all that we are and all that we strive to be as a profession of arms. They add proper respect and recognition to everyone who serves and who has served. This respect and recognition is not only appropriate, it is fully earned.
There are plenty of inspiring examples of courageous women leading us in combat and in service. Retired Col. Martha McSally, Class of 1988, was the first woman in the Air Force to serve as the commander of any combat aviation squadron, to include fighters and bombers. She now serves as a U.S. senator from Arizona.
Capt. Amy Lynn Svoboda, Class of 1989, is another. Her squadron’s training officer, Svoboda was killed flying her A-10 Thunderbolt II during a night training mission. While a cadet, she was a member of the women’s volleyball team, and every year the Amy Svoboda Award is given to the player who best exemplifies selfless service.
Let me share as well the story of Maj. Adrianna M. Vorderbruggen, Class of 2002 and a highly regarded special agent with the Air Force’s Office of Special Investigations, who was killed in 2015 by a suicide bomber while stationed in Afghanistan. She was one of six Airmen killed in the attack at Bagram Airfield in what was the single deadliest attack since 2013. All served with OSI or Air Force security forces.
This is who we are. We will never forget our history. Our song embodies our ethos and must be inclusive of all who raise their right hand and take the solemn oath to support and defend the Constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic. We freely take this oath without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion.
When I walk the sacred grounds of Arlington National Cemetery this Memorial Day as I do every year and visit the Airmen killed under my command as the Combined Forces Air Component Commander in the Middle East, I will visit men and women buried side by side. Such is the nature of combat. It does not discriminate. Neither should we.
Editor’s note: Goldfein is a Class of 1983 graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy.
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