Air Force Secretary Michael Donley and Yale University President Richard Levin on Monday signed an agreement that will return an Air Force reserve officers’ training corps detachment to the Ivy League campus in New Haven, Conn., for the first time since 1957. Classes for cadets will begin there in the fall of 2012. The Yale detachment also will enroll ROTC students from other Connecticut universities that participate under cross-town arrangements. Paving the way for the return of an ROTC presence at places like Yale after decades of absence has been the Obama Administration’s move to end the ban on homosexuals openly serving in the US military. Earlier this year, Harvard University agreed to let an ROTC presence return to the school for the first time in 41 years. (Includes New Haven report by Maj. Joel Harper) (For background on this issue, read Replanting ROTC from Air Force Magazine’s 2011 archive.)
The 301st Fighter Wing in Fort Worth, Texas, became the first standalone Reserve unit in the Air Force to get its own F-35s, welcoming the first fighter Nov. 5.