Our guests will include:

Colonel John C. Attebury, USAF, Retired

John Attebury entered the Air Force Aviation Cadet program in 1955, earning his navigator wings and commission before returning to training in 1960 to become a pilot. During 32 years in the Air Force, he served at Tan Son Nhut Air Base in Vietnam and flew aircraft ranging from the B-25 and RC-121 to the C-141 and C-5, accumulating more than 20,000 flying hours. He is a graduate of the Air War College and holds a BBA from the University of Miami and an MBA from the University of Illinois.

After retiring from the Air Force, he served as an FAA aviation safety inspector. At age 91, Attebury still builds and flies his own airplanes, teaches friends and family on his flight simulator, and conducts flight reviews for fellow Class 62A pilots who want to keep flying.

Colonel Cliff Tatum, USAF, Retired

Cliff Tatum was born in southern Florida and moved to New York City at age eight. As a young actor, he appeared in 80 network television programs, two Broadway productions—Annie Get Your Gun and The Hot Corner—and the film Room for One More. He performed alongside many leading stars of the era, including Cary Grant and Ronald Colman.

Tatum had always wanted to become a fighter pilot. Just 14 days after earning his BBA, he entered Undergraduate Pilot Training with Class 62A. He later earned a master’s degree and completed Harvard Business School’s Program for Management Development, Air Force Fighter Weapons School, and Air War College.    During his Air Force career, he flew the F-102, F-4C/D/E, F-84F, and the U.S. Navy’s A-7E. On the final carrier cruise of the Vietnam War, he completed 152 arrested landings—or “traps”—including 52 at night. He remembers every one of those night traps to this day.

Colonel David F. Tippett, USAF, Retired

David Tippett entered the Air Force through ROTC after graduating from Allegheny College in 1960. During his career, he flew the F-102, F-4C/D/E, F-4 Wild Weasel, and F-16A. He completed a combat tour at Ubon, Thailand, flying missions over heavily defended North Vietnam during Operation Rolling Thunder.

A graduate of the Air Force Fighter Weapons School and Army War College, Tippett served in senior operational and command positions, eventually commanding an F-16 wing. Alongside his accounts of combat, Tippett has a rich collection of stories capturing the mischief, humor, and camaraderie of Air Force life—including one escapade that unexpectedly attracted attention at the four-star level.

Shana Intille Wilcox, Volunteer Historian for Class 62A

Shana Intille Wilcox graduated from UT-Austin in only two years, then earned an M.A. from Yale University and completed postgraduate studies at the École Polytechnique, France’s military-affiliated grande école. Her career included investment banking in Paris and New York with Citigroup and Rothschild, strategy consulting at McKinsey, and CFO of Teris.

Her professional accomplishments include privatizing casinos in Argentina, co-leading the $1 billion sale of a New Jersey water utility to a French company, and raising $75 million in U.S. municipal bonds for a French hazardous waste company. One of her proudest personal accomplishments came in 2021, when the pilots of Class 62A made her an honorary member of her father’s Air Force pilot class.

One of the oldest surviving U.S. Army buildings in America is the Hessian Powder Magazine in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. This sturdy limestone structure was built during the darkest days of the American Revolution to store the gunpowder and ammunition that helped sustain George Washington’s army. But who built it? And why has it long been known as the “Hessian” Powder Magazine?

Join us for a special America 250 program featuring a screening of the new 40-minute documentary The Hessian Powder Magazine, followed by a live conversation with historian Jack Leighow of the U.S. Army Heritage & Education Center and Army University, who helped lead the years-long research behind the film.

Drawing on newly uncovered documents, architectural analysis, ground-penetrating radar, and archaeological excavations, the documentary follows the remarkable effort to solve a centuries-old historical puzzle. The investigation confirms that the building is indeed the Revolutionary War powder magazine constructed in 1777 as part of the sprawling military depot at Carlisle, one of the Continental Army’s most important centers for manufacturing weapons, ammunition, and military supplies. It also reveals compelling evidence that Hessian prisoners captured at Trenton likely helped build the magazine, giving new meaning to a name that had long been dismissed as little more than local legend.

The story illuminates the enormous logistical effort behind American independence, the workshops, foundries, carpenters, blacksmiths, laborers, and military planners who supplied Washington’s army when victory depended as much on production as battlefield success. It also reminds us that history is never finished. Even after 250 years, archaeology, archival research, and careful scholarship continue to reshape what we know about the Revolution.

Following the film, Jack Leighow will discuss the investigation, answer questions, and explain how this remarkable survivor of the Revolutionary War is helping us better understand the nation’s founding as America approaches its 250th anniversary.