Many distinguished (and some undistinguished) speakers come to the US Air Force Academy to speak to the cadet wing.  Sometimes these speeches are done during a military training period within the school day; others are delivered in the evening.

A time-honored tradition at the US Air Force Academy is the presentation to those speakers (most, but not all) with a statuette of the USAFA mascot, the falcon.  After the speaker concludes their remarks, a cadet leader enters the stage and thanks the speaker for their wise words.  As he holds the statuette aloft, he then says that on behalf of the cadet wing, he would like to present the speaker with…

…and the entire wing shouts out: The Bird!

It is an interesting and entertaining example of both stereotypical  Read more