Efforts by some encouraging the U.S. Air Force Academy to posthumously honor former conservative commentator and Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk were rejected on Friday, according to the nonprofit membership organization Academy's Association of Graduates (AOG).
Kirk was fatally shot in the neck September 10 while speaking to about 3,000 attendees at Utah Valley University during a Turning Point USA event. The assassination spawned both massive outpourings of support as well as dissention, based largely on political views.
"We are grateful to all who have taken the time to reach out by phone and email, and to those who attended today’s meeting in person, to share their views," the AOG said Friday in a statement. "The AOG Board, serving as the governing body of the Association, took the thoughtful feedback received into account.
"The Honorary Member and honorary degree motions concerning Mr. Kirk were withdrawn."
The AOG said that several hundred Air Force Academy graduates, parents and family members had contacted the association since Wednesday to share perspectives on two motions included among others during the Oct. 17 Board of Directors meeting.
One of the motions recommended that the U.S. Air Force Academy seek the authority to posthumously award an honorary degree to Kirk, who was serving as a presidential appointee to the Academy Board of Visitors at the time of his death.
Another motion sought to recognize Mr. Kirk as an Honorary Member of the Association of Graduates.
Both motions were introduced by individual members of the board.
Another Vote
The motions were reportedly introduced by Lt. Gen. Rod Bishop, a retire Air Force veteran, according to another Air Force veteran, Marty France.
"[Kirk] has no long record of service to USAFA," France wrote on his Substack on Oct. 16. "What he does have is long record of racist and sexist statements, though. These are well-documented on thousands of sites and not worth rehashing. Probably the most galling to USAFA graduates, though, are his comments about seeing a black pilot in the cockpit of an airliner. 'If I see a Black pilot, I’m gonna be like, ‘Boy, I hope he’s qualified.'
"That’s a funny statement coming from someone who had no qualifications to be a member of the USAFA Board of Visitors—overseeing an institution that has probably produced more qualified pilots, of all races, than any other school in the nation. His comments about women, and other minorities, Muslims, and the LGBTQ+ communities are just as bad—and well-documented."
France told Military.com that bylaws stipulate that someone can only be nominated twice for votes.
"They may try again, but I'm confident they'll lose," he said.
