Air Force Academy Superintendent Gen. Michelle Johnson formally announced her retirement Thursday, three days after meeting with The Gazette’s editorial board for more than an hour Monday. A news release did not reveal the date her retirement becomes effective.

Meanwhile, Johnson remains a top contender for appointment as chancellor at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs. Whatever Johnson’s future holds, she has improved the trajectory of the academy for generations of students to come.

A self-described farm girl from Iowa, Johnson is a 1981 academy graduate and 1983 Rhodes Scholar who went on to fly more than 3,600 hours, piloting the C-141, T-41, KC-10, C-17, C-5 Galaxy and Kc-135 aircraft.

The first female superintendent of the academy, Johnson is the mother of twin eighth-grade boys at Eagle Ridge Middle School.

“They think the epitome of all things is to be in some local Colorado Springs high school marching band and go to compete for state. That’s their thing,” Jonson told us.

Whether she lands the UCCS job or something else, Johnson wants to stay in the Springs because “it is so much on the rise. The energy is so much better” than when she took her appointment to the academy in 2013. We hope she stays and continues contributing.

Read more at The Colorado Springs Gazette.