Since 1941, Embry-Riddle has trained pilots, mechanics, scientists and tacticians to serve their nation, their allies and the common good.
In 2025, the Prescott Campus signed a landmark agreement with the U.S. Air Force to provide Initial Pilot Training to commissioned officers selected for Undergraduate Pilot Training, continuing a tradition of service to last well beyond 100 years.
Lt. Frank Beeson (’41) was the first American cadet to train at Carlstrom Field in Arcadia, Florida. Carlstrom Field was one of Embry-Riddle’s five training schools that instructed more than 26,000 people, mostly
U.S. and U.K. soldiers, as pilots serving in World War II. Beeson, who served in the U.S. Army Air Corps, would also be the first cadet trained at Embry-Riddle to be recorded as killed in action.
Nancy Martin Graham (’42) (left, pictured with fellow instructor Marguerite Dowd) would teach U.S. Navy cadets to fl y at Embry-Riddle’s School of Aviation. In 1942, Graham learned to fl y at the same Miami Seaplane Base after making a promise to her husband, an Army Air Corps pilot, who had died. She was one of several women who instructed cadets at the base in Coral Gables, also training women to become pilots in the war effort as WASPs and WAVES. Graham would go on to sponsor a plaque honoring John Paul Riddle at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum.
U.S. Air Force Brig. Gen. William Spruance chaired the Board of Trustees at Embry-Riddle from 1972 to 87. He was commissioned into the U.S. Army Air Corps in 1939 before founding the Delaware Air National Guard.
Col. Merryl Tengesdal (’08) became the first and only Black woman to pilot the U-2 spy plane, and she did so while obtaining her master’s degree at Embry-Riddle through the Worldwide Campus.
Gen. Tod D. Walters (’96) is Commander, U.S. European Command and NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander Europe, overseeing more than 60,000 military and civilian personnel in the region.
Gen. Kenneth S. Wilsbach (’97) is Chief of Staff of the U.S. Air Force, making him the senior uniformed officer responsible for the 665,000 active-duty, National Guard, Reserve and civilian workforce serving with the Air Force. He is a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
EMBRY-RIDDLE ROTC
Air Force Detachment 157 (Est. 1972)
Air Force Detachment 028 (Est. 1978)
Army Eagle Battalion (Circa mid-1980s)
Army Eagle Company (Circa late 1980s)
Navy/Marines ROTC (Daytona Beach est. 2003, Prescott circa mid-1980s)