{"pk":65810,"title":"National Parks and “Mission Essential”: Teaching About Protected Areas at the United States Air Force Academy","subtitle":null,"abstract":"The United States Air Force Academy is one of five federal military academies in the United States and combines the functions of military training with academic education. The Academy is an entirely undergraduate institution, with about 4,000 cadets, who will graduate with a bachelor’s degree in one of over 30 majors. It was the last of the military academies to be founded, dating from 1954, and is located on a large and park-like campus on the outskirts of Colorado Springs, Colorado. A class on national parks and public lands was taught for the first time (to our knowledge) at the Academy in spring 2025. This paper narrates the history of that course and how it was structured to adapt to the unique environment of a military academy. It also highlights some of the distinctive features of teaching at such a place and the course’s role as “mission essential.”","language":"eng","license":{"name":"","short_name":"","text":null,"url":""},"keywords":[],"section":"Featured Theme Articles","is_remote":true,"remote_url":"https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6df9p77m","frozenauthors":[{"first_name":"Jason","middle_name":"","last_name":"Lackey","name_suffix":"","institution":"US Air Force Academy","department":""},{"first_name":"Michael","middle_name":"","last_name":"Pretes","name_suffix":"","institution":"University of North Alabama","department":""}],"date_submitted":null,"date_accepted":null,"date_published":"2026-05-15T14:59:37Z","render_galley":null,"galleys":[{"label":"PDF","type":"pdf","path":"https://journalpub.escholarship.org/psf/article/65810/galley/50462/download/"}]}