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From fighting ISIS to the Air Force Academy, new superintendent aims to teach cadets about modern war

Military Times: Lt. Gen. Jay Silveria has flown combat sorties over the Balkans and Iraq. He’s served as the vice commander at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan. And he played a central role managing the war against the Islamic State as deputy commander of U.S. Air Forces Central Command.

Now, Silveria has returned to his alma mater for the first time in more than three decades as the new superintendent of the Air Force Academy. And he hopes to bring his experience ― and knowledge of the way war has evolved ― to help train the next generation of Air Force officers.

“I’m going to do everything I can to talk to the cadets about my experience, and about what they can expect in a modern battlefield,” said Silveria, a 1985 graduate of the academy who became superintendent Aug. 11. “They will enter a complex battlefield of modern warfare that is connected in a way that we have never seen before. … We need to teach the cadets to think that way.”

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