Vice President Mike Pence is delivering a commencement address to the U.S. Air Force Academy’s 2020 graduating class. It's a symbolic show of normalcy and one aimed at showing the country is on a course to gradually reopen after weeks of shutdown.
Four F-35A fighter jets fly over the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo., Friday, April 17, 2020, to honor the Class of 2020 who will graduate early in a closed ceremony Saturday on the terrazzo at the center of campus rather than Falcon Stadium. The early graduation on the terrazzo will allow them to stay 8 feet apart during the COVID-19 pandemic. Vice President Mike Pence will speak in person, but the cadets won't march up to receive diplomas and high fives and hugs are banned.
“I know we gather at a time of great challenge in the life of our nation,” Pence said as he began his remarks. “And while we don’t quite look like the usual graduation at the Air Force Academy, let me tell you, this is an awesome sight. And I wouldn’t be anywhere else but with the 62nd class of the Air Force Academy, the class of 2020.”
“You knew your graduation day would be memorable. But did you imagine that your commencement would take place in mid-April? Or that each of us would have a face mask at the ready? Or that you would march a COVID-compliant eight feet apart to the terrazzo?” asked Barbara Barrett, secretary of the Air Force.
Despite the starkly different visual’s, Pence’s day trip was meant as a signal to the nation that the pandemic response has entered a new phase.
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