Air 
Force Cross recipient TSgt. Robert Gutierrez has been named a member of the Gathering of Eagles, a distinguished group of airpower legends that includes such names as Neil Armstrong and Chuck Yeager. “I’m definitely honored,” said Gutierrez, a combat controller who now serves as an instructor at Air Force Special Operations Command’s Special Tactics Training Squadron at Hurlburt Field, Fla. A group of Air Command and Staff College students created the Eagles in 1982. Each year, students at the college learn about air, space, and cyberspace history through biographical studies and personal interviews with the student-selected Eagles. Gutierrez is the only current Active Duty airman who is an Eagle, according to a May 19 Hurlburt release. In June, Gutierrez will travel to Maxwell AFB, Ala., to tell his story to the 514 majors currently enrolled at the college. “What I hope it puts out is that resilient, never quit attitude,” he said in the release. (Hurlburt report by Ashley M. Wright) (For more on Gutierrez’s heroic Air Force Cross story, read Once More Unto the Breach from Air Force Magazine’s October 2011 issue.)
Navy CCA Program’s Shape Coming into Focus
Oct. 17, 2025
In announcing its Navy Collaborative Combat Aircraft contract, General Atomics has provided some clues as to where the service is heading with its version of an armed, autonomous fighter escort. It will likely be quite different from the Air Force version.
