The Friends of the Library

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