Air Force Honors Local Man

Cadet 1st Lt. Niclaus Koeppen, a 2010 graduate of La Cañada High School, was recently honored by The Arnold Air Society.

The society is a “professional honorary service organization advocating the support of aerospace power,” which originated in 1947 at the University of Cincinnati. Koeppen is an ROTIC member at the University of Colorado at Boulder where he holds the rank of Cadet 4th Class. The primary focus of the Arnold Air Society Mission is to build strong officers for the United States Air Force by promoting high moral, physical, and mental attitudes through their training semesters.

To be a member of AAS, each candidate must be in AFROTC. They must also pass all of their classes outside of the regular Air Force training process. Additionally, each candidate must demonstrate exceptional prowess in physical fitness, knowledge and drill.

Detachment 105 at the University of Colorado’s last training semester included approximately 12 weeks of training. There were initially eight candidates in the running for the special honor, however only five graduated. Koeppen, was one of the five. All five were initiated into active members of Arnold Air Society.

Koeppen is considering a career as an officer in the U.S. Air Force. The second- year university student is currently on the wait list for the Air Force Academy.