AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo. (KOAA) — Air Force Secretary Dr. Troy E. Meink has directed the Air Force Academy (USAFA) to find ways to streamline and speed up the restoration timeline for the long-delayed chapel project.
During this week’s USAFA Board of Visitors meeting, a previously unreported memo from Secretary Meink was presented to outline new efforts to ramp up the process.
The memo, dated Oct. 30, frees up “maneuver space” to accelerate the restoration timeline, said Brig. Gen. Patrick G. Miller, commander with the Air Force Civil Engineer Center (AFCEC). Miller is charged with overseeing the chapel project.
Gen. Miller suggested the last Board of Visitors meeting, which happened in August, helped trigger this renewed focus on the chapel.
“Post-Board of Visitors meeting, the Secretary of the Air Force had pulled together a meeting with myself…and some of the senior leaders…just to talk about the Academy chapel, and mainly to say, ‘Team, you've got our support. Let me know where we can take down barriers to accelerate progress on this project,” said Miller.
In the August meeting, the late conservative activist Charlie Kirk, who was assassinated shortly after and was a member of the board appointed by President Trump this year, made an impassioned plea to speed up the chapel restoration.
Kirk had said many cadets expressed disappointment they’d never step foot inside during their time at the Academy.
“I think nine years is outrageous, honestly. I know there was a lot of asbestos, enough to fill a bunch of football fields,” said Kirk at the time. “Nobody wants that. But I mean, this is the US Air Force. We're here to do things quickly and in a modern way.”
A month later, KOAA broke the news that the chapel had received another $88 million contract and the completion date was pushed back to the end of 2028. The total cost jumped to an estimated $335 million.
A little over a month after the KOAA report, President Trump posted a tirade on his social media platform Truth Social, criticizing the skyrocket restoration costs and demanding an investigation.
“This mess should be investigated. Very unfair to the Cadets — A COMPLETE ARCHITECTURAL CATASTROPHE!” Trump wrote on Oct 16.
It should be noted the president’s post came two days after Charlie Kirk’s birthday, and a day before the USAFA Association of Graduates was set to vote on recommending Kirk for an honorary degree, which could have played a factor in the president's sudden focus on the project.
Then, as revealed in this week’s Board of Visitors meeting, Air Force Secretary Meink went to USAFA on Oct. 30 and 31 to visit the chapel and issue the memo. According to Gen. Miller’s presentation, Meink spent two hours on site at the chapel.
In the August Board of Visitors meeting, Kirk mused about what would happen if this project became a “top priority” for the Secretary of Defense or White House if they wanted to “streamline” the restoration. It now appears his musings might have come to fruition.
The Secretary Meink memo outlined several directives, including a dedicated Air Force civil engineer as a project manager on site and ways to overcome bureaucratic delays.
“Things like negotiations, modifications, where we have to go for different approval levels, and we really streamline that process to make sure that as we work through the contract stuff, the modifications, the approvals, we are doing that as fast as possible,” said Miller. “And so, that's aligning the team with the right mission to accelerate this project.”
Miller said a “deal team” was also meeting with the project construction firm, J.E. Dunn, in Kansas City this week to dig through financial and better understand how the project is being expensed and reimbursed.
According to Miller’s presentation, modification negotiations on the chapel project will happen in San Antonio later this week, on Dec. 11 and 12, to determine how to accelerate the schedule and bump the reopening timeline up.
“None of us are thrilled with where we are with the cost and schedule in this contract,” he said. “But we are working hard to accelerate that from right to left. And so the deal team is helping that out.”
He also noted this year’s “Big Beautiful Bill” allocated money that wasn’t one-year money, but multiple-year money, meaning they could better negotiate the timeline without being hamstrung by time limitations for funding sources.
The Air Force Academy Chapel, an iconic piece of modern architecture, first opened in 1962 and has been mired by “band-aid” repairs ever since due to water leakage, according to USAFA Architect Duane Boyle during a press event in April, 2024.
After years of efforts to maintain the chapel, the Air Force provided funding in 2016 to begin the large-scale process of renovation and repair.
J.E. Dunn Construction was first awarded the contract in July, 2019 ahead of the October closure.
Since then, the project has suffered a myriad of delays and funding increases due to the discovery of asbestos and alignment issues with the steel structure.
Email Senior Reporter Brett Forrest at brett.forrest@koaa.com. Follow @brettforrestTV on 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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