Air Force Historical Association Honors Altieri, Blazich for Articles

Cols. Jayson A. Altieri and Frank A. Blazich Jr. have been recognized by the Air Force Historical Association for their articles  for Air Power History.

The Best Air Power History Article Writing Award went to:

•  Blazich for “’Definitely Damaged or Destroyed’ Reexamining Civil Air Patrol’s Wartime Claims” in Vol. 66, No. 1 (Spring 2019).
   
• Altieri for ““Government Girls: Crowd Sourcing Aircraft in World War II,” published in the Vol. 67, No. 1 (Spring 2020) issue. 
   

Altieri, the Alabama Wing’s Group 2 director of operations, is an assistant professor of leadership at the Air War College at Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama. He is a retired U.S. Army Colonel with more than 33 years of active and reserve service, including three combat tours in Afghanistan and Iraq. He previously held national security level posts at the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency in Bethesda, Maryland.; NATO in Brussels, Belgium; and the National War College in Washington, D.C. 

He served on the Civil Air Patrol Board of Governors from November 2012-November 2018, chairing the panel from September 2016-August 2018.  His current book project, “A Guest of Mr. Lincoln: The Wartime Service of Sergeant Joseph H. Wheeless, 32nd North Carolina, Confederate States Army,” is expected to be published in early 2023.

Blazich, CAP national historian – a role he previously filled from April 2012-March 2018 – is curator of modern military history at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History as well as  Mid-Atlantic regional coordinator for the Society of Military History. He served as director of the Col. Louisa S. Morse Center for CAP History from March 2018-September 2021. 

His first edited book, “Bataan Survivor:  A POW’s Account of Japanese Captivity in World War II ,” was published in 2017. His second book, “’An Honorable Place in American Airpower’: Civil Air Patrol Coastal Patrol Operations, 1942-1943,” was published in 2020.

The two were recognized at the 2022 Air Power History Annual Award Dinner at the Army-Navy Country Club in Arlington, Virginia. The award presentations were delayed because of the COVID-19 pandemic.  The magazine was renamed Air & Space Power History with the Vol. 68, No. 4 (Winter 2021) issue.

The Air Force Historical Foundation, founded in 1953 by Gen. Carl A. “Tooey” Spaatz, the first chief of staff of the Air Force, is a nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving the history and traditions of American aviation and space capabilities.   
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1st Lt. Rachel Pridgen
Public Affairs Officer
Dothan Composite Squadron
Alabama Wing