LACKLAND AIR FORCE BASE, TEXAS –
The Team Lackland African American Heritage committee held their Scholarship Banquet on Feb. 22nd at the Gateway Club, concluding this year's official Black History Month events on base.
Retired Lt. Gen. John Hopper was the guest speaker for the event.
"I am honored and flattered to be speaking here at Lackland," General Hopper said. "I always enjoy coming back to Texas."
The focus of this year's Black History Month was multiculturalism, and General Hopper used that theme as a platform to address the crowd.
"I wanted to be able to talk about the strength and prevalence of African American culture in our society," said General Hopper.
The former pilot has also been very impressed to see that over the years, African Americans have been able maintain several of their cultural qualities.
"Oftentimes when a culture assimilates, it loses a lot of its original traits. But African Americans have done a good job of holding onto a lot of those traits, and it is important to go back and trace the strength that made that possible," said the general.
General Hopper said that in the last 40 years, the role of African Americans and other minorities has paralleled the growth of the Air Force. To provide perspective to this, General Hopper commented on his first year at the Air Force Academy in 1965. There were 12 black cadets in the entire program.
"We had no graduating seniors, one junior, five sophomore and six freshmen. It is incredible to see the growth of the Air Force since my time at the academy," General Hopper said.
Now, approximately 20 percent of Air Force Academy students are of minority background.
General Hopper also acknowledged that the city of San Antonio provides a unique opportunity to become immersed in different cultures.
"There is a large Hispanic population, and San Antonio is so close to the Mexican border," the general said. "On top of that, there is a lot of Texas history here, as well as a strong African American community. San Antonio is the perfect example of why they call this country a melting pot of cultures."
Approximately 15 percent of all Airmen are blacks.
In all, approximately 25 percent of the Air Force is comprised of Airmen from minority culture backgrounds.