A Digital Gateway to Air Force Heritage: Fielding Interactive Oral History Kiosks at the United States Air Force Academy

• In Event: Reflecting and Shaping: traditional and new techniques in oral history to collect and share the military experience

Abstract

In March 2016, the USAFA Center for Character and Leadership Development (CCLD) moved to its new home in Polaris Hall, the first iconic addition to the USAFA campus since the completion of the Cadet Chapel in 1963. In ongoing efforts to educate, inform and inspire the next generation of leaders for the nation and its Air Force, the CCLD fielded a set of interactive digital kiosks to showcase the oral history research conducted by the USAFA Center for Oral History. This paper highlights the research, design, and development of these interactive “Core Values” kiosks, with particular emphasis on how interviews conducted with USAFA’s distinguished graduates are collected and disseminated in efforts to create a usable, accessible past to benefit today’s cadets, and eventually, a wider public audience. Recognizing the key role that the USAF Academy played in providing an intellectual and philosophical foundation for successful careers in the military, government, public service, and the private sector, interviews were sampled for meaningful, inspirational, and informative segments. These highlight both the USAFA Core Values and critical features of the USAF Academy education of paramount importance to both military and civilian careers. The result is a virtual opportunity for today’s cadets to gain meaningful insight from previous generations of distinguished Air Force graduates that will provide them with the introspective wisdom and moral foundation they can glean from examining many lifetimes of distinguished service.

Author

• Robert Paul Wettemann, USAF Academy