Air Force Academy civilian professor speaks out after resignation as leadership attempts to fill vacancies

U.S. AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo. (KOAA) — It remains unclear how many Air Force Academy (USAFA) civilian faculty members have resigned this year, but Professor Brian Johns is among the ranks.

Dr. Johns was an assistant professor of systems engineering in the Academy’s Department of Mechanical Engineering until Friday, which was his last day.

“I think a little betrayed, you know, by the government to a certain extent,” said Johns in response to this year’s efforts to push out dozens of civilian faculty members at USAFA. “I was committing to a long term position at the Air Force Academy, and it kind of felt like they didn't hold up their end of the bargain.”

Johns took a position at the Academy in 2023, giving up a tenured professor and department chair role at Cornell College in Iowa. In the world of academia, that was a giant leap of faith.

“It was a service academy, which I've always had great respect for the military. And if there's a way for me to use my technical skills and my teaching ability to help out our nation, I think that was a great opportunity for myself,” he said.

But this year, his pride in his role at a military academy dissipated as the Trump Administration and billionaire Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) went on a nationwide slash and burn campaign to abruptly fire federal civilian workers in agencies across the U.S.

Johns said he received an email on February 27 that his department head wanted a meeting. The next day, he was called into the office and told he would be fired the next day.

“He wanted to assure me that no matter what the email said, it had nothing to do with my performance in the department,” said Johns.

As reported in the mass firings this year, it appeared Johns was to receive a notice that his poor job performance was justification for his firing. A National Parks employee who spoke to News5 this year said much of the same through his experience.

Johns said his job performance reviews had received top marks.

But, he said the email never came, and he was never fired. He said it could have been due to lawsuits filed across the country as federal workers pushed back against the mass layoffs.

Regardless, he never felt safe in his job from that point forward. Teaching for Johns, and other civilians, became stressful as they weren’t sure if or when it would happen.

He said it “hurt” because he was doing great things in the engineering program while helping students succeed.

In the world of university hiring, Johns said the hiring season typically begins in the fall and wraps up by March. He wasn’t confident he’d find another opportunity, but has since committed to teach at Colorado State University.

“I think the big question still remains, why is this happening? We've seen an increase in defense budgets, but we're still cutting civilians in the DOD,” said Johns. “And it's not going to help the overall situation.”

As former instructors previously told News5, which Johns argued as well, civilian instructors help keep the continuation of institutional knowledge at the Air Force Academy as military faculty members are rotated in and out, they said.

In an Air Force Academy Board of Visitors meeting last week, the first of the year with the current iteration of the board, Colorado Republican Congressman Jeff Crank spoke up in support of maintaining a mix of civilian and military faculty.

Lt. Gen. Tony Bauernfeind, the USAFA superintendent, wouldn’t commit to doing so. Instead, he read from a prepared statement, just one of a couple instances he did during the meeting, signaling he expected the topic to be discussed.

Lt. Gen. Bauernfeind confirmed reporting by News5, stating they were cutting 140 civilian positions across the Academy, including over 50 faculty and administrative staff.

Many of those positions were already empty, he noted, due to the Department of Defense’s deferred resignation and early retirement programs offered this year.

“While not a direct one-to-one pathway, we have been working with The Department of the Air Force and Air Force Personnel Center for civilian teammates who have departed to bring in military members from active duty, and the reserve that have the requisite academic credentials to continue the academic rigor at the United States Air Force Academy,” said Lt. Gen. Bauernfeind.

Previous News5 reporting revealed the difficulty in bringing in active duty military educators who could teach, had the appropriate education level, and were able to rotate into the assignment at the right time.

According to an Air Force spokesperson, there exist 91 active duty enlisted members with PhDs and 1,700 active duty officers with PhDs. One concern critics of the civilian cuts have brought up is the risk of losing accreditation if not enough PhD faculty members are teaching.

But Superintendent Bauernfeind was adamant the Academy has not cut majors and would not lose accreditation.

“I can confidently attest that we are maintaining the academic rigor, the accreditation and the high standards expected at USAFA,” said Lt. Gen. Bauernfeind.

Dr. Brian Johns said he was disheartened to see the public support of civilian firings this year and called it a “strange reaction.”

If the President, Elon Musk, and the Air Force Academy sought to eliminate government spending, Johns argued, the civilian teaching faculty aren’t the answer.

“When you're talking waste, fraud and abuse, I haven't seen any of that from civilians at the Air Force Academy,” said Johns. “They're some of the hardest working people that I know and making a commitment to serve our government and our nation.”

Email Senior Reporter Brett Forrest at brett.forrest@koaa.com. Follow @brettforrestTVon X and Brett Forrest News on Facebook.

Brett can also communicate via encrypted apps like Signal. Due to the sensitive nature of ongoing reporting from federal actions, he is willing to take steps to protect identities.

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