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Lieutenant General
Ervin J. Rokke
Permanent Professor 1976–1986
Dean of the Faculty 1983–1986
B.S., United States Air Force Academy
M.A., Harvard University
Ph.D., Harvard University
Erv Rokke, the Academy’s 32nd Permanent Professor, was born in Warren, Minnesota, in 1939. He received his commission as a second lieutenant upon graduation from the United States Air Force Academy with a Bachelor of Science degree in Political Science in 1962. His first assignment was to Harvard University where he completed a Master’s degree in International Relations in 1964. In 1965 he completed the Air Intelligence Officer Course at Lowry AFB, CO. Assigned to the 67th Reconnaissance Technical Squadron, Yokota Air Base, Japan, in 1965, Erv successively served as the officer in charge of the plans and evaluation, production management, photogrammetric development, and production and quality control sections. Moving to Hickam AFB, HI, in 1967, he was a Photo-Radar Intelligence Officer in the 548th Reconnaissance Technical Group, Pacific Air Forces. In 1968 Erv became an Instructor in the Department of Political Science at the Air Force Academy. In 1969 he again entered graduate school at Harvard University, graduating with a PhD in International Relations in 1970. Returning to the Academy’s Department of Political Science, he was an Instructor and, later, the Chairman of Instruction and an Associate Professor. He was co-editor of American Defense Policy, 3rd edition, 1973, which enjoyed several printings and was a basic text for Air Force Academy and ROTC courses. In 1973 Erv became a Plans Officer in the Office of the Defense Adviser in the US Mission to NATO, Brussels, Belgium. In 1976 Erv was appointed a Permanent Professor and served as an Assistant Dean of the Faculty. In 1977 he became the Head of the Department of Political Science, and in 1980 his sabbatical assignment was as the Air Attaché to the United Kingdom assigned to the American Embassy in London. Returning to lead the Department of Political Science in 1982, Erv was selected as the Dean of the Faculty and promoted to brigadier general in 1983. During his tenure as Dean, the Academy completed its first 25-year curriculum review. In 1986 Erv became the first, and to date the only, USAFA Permanent Professor to return to the Line of the AF. Again a colonel, Erv attended defense attaché training at the Foreign Service Institute in Arlington, VA, before becoming the Defense and Air Attaché to the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, American Embassy, Moscow, in 1987, where he witnessed the last days of the Soviet Union. He was promoted to brigadier general again in 1988. Next, in 1989 he became the Associate Deputy Director of Operations for Military Support, National Security Agency, Fort George G. Meade, MD. After promotion to major general in 1991, Erv moved back to Europe as the Director of Intelligence for HQ US European Command at Stuttgart-Vaihingen, Germany. In 1993 he became the Assistant Chief of Staff, Intelligence, HQ USAF, Washington, DC. He began his last active duty assignment in 1994 when he was promoted to lieutenant general and appointed President of the National Defense University, also in Washington, DC. Erv retired from the USAF in 1997.
During his tenure at NDU and since, Erv has focused on advanced analysis relating to non-linear problem sets in the national security arena and worked with a private sector company that teaches related courses to American and friendly foreign intelligence services. Upon his retirement, Erv became the President of Moravian College in Bethlehem, PA. When he left Moravian College nine years later he was honored as an Honorary Alumnus for his outstanding improvements to the quality and quantity of the student body, curricula, programs offered, and college infrastructure. From 2007 to 2009, he occupied the Superintendent’s Chair for Character and Leadership Development at the Academy. During this time Erv provided the vision and energy that culminated in the dedication in 2016 of the building that is the new home for the Center for Character and Leadership Development. He also served as the President of the USAFA Endowment from 2009 to 2011 and is a member of the Endowment’s Board of Directors. Erv is currently the Senior Scholar in Residence at the Center for Character and Leadership Development. He and several colleagues have published a series of three articles on Combined Effects Power in the Joint Force Quarterly, most recently in JFQ 85, 2nd Quarter 2017. In recent years he has spent time as a Fellow at the Australian National Defense University and made substantial presentations at international conferences in Romania, Serbia-Montenegro, Germany, and the US.
Erv is a member of the Defense Intelligence Agency Attaché Hall of Fame, a recipient of the Jan Masaryk Medal of Achievement from the Czech Republic in 2006, and holds honorary degrees from Muhlenberg and Moravian Colleges in Pennsylvania and the Defense Intelligence College in Washington, DC. He is a member of the Advisory Council for the Education and Training Center of the US Institute of Peace, the Council on Foreign Relations, and the Board of Visitors for the Defense Language Institute.