Home Index
Brigadier General
Philip D. Caine
Permanent Professor 1981–1992
B.A., University of Denver
M.A., Stanford University
Ph.D., Stanford University
Phil Caine, the Academy’s 39th Permanent Professor, was born in Chadron, Nebraska, in 1933. In 1955 he graduated from the University of Denver with a major in Social Sciences and a commission as a Distinguished Graduate from AFROTC. After graduating from pilot training at Vance AFB, OK, in 1957, he was assigned to fly the T-29 aircraft at Mather AFB, CA, where he became an Instructor Pilot and Flight Examiner. In1961 he left active flying to be a full-time graduate student at Stanford, earning his Master’s degree in History in 1963 prior to reporting to the Academy as an Instructor in the Department of History. A year later he returned to Stanford under Academy sponsorship. He completed his PhD degree in US Diplomatic History in 1966 and returned to the Department of History for a second tour, 1966–1969. During this assignment, he developed a new course on Unconventional Warfare and chaired the department’s offering in American Diplomatic History. In 1969–1970 Phil spent a year in Headquarters, Seventh Air Force, Saigon, Vietnam, as Deputy Chief, then Chief, Project CHECO (Contemporary Historical Evaluation of Combat Operations). Returning once again to the Academy in 1970, Phil was subsequently appointed Tenure Associate Professor, then Tenure Professor, and in 1976 during Colonel Hurley’s sabbatical, he served as Acting Head, Department of History. From 1977 to 1978 he was a Professor of International Studies at the National War College, Washington, DC. He began his fourth assignment to the Academy’s History Department in 1978 as Deputy Department Head. However, in 1980, Phil was transferred from the faculty to the Commandant of Cadets as Deputy Commandant for Military Instruction and in 1981 was appointed Permanent Professor, the first such under the Commandant. In that position, he was responsible for Professional Military Studies (which subsequently became the Department of Military and Strategic Studies), Cadet Professional Development, cadet survival and small arms training, summer program scheduling, and the flying operations of the 50th Airmanship Training Squadron. During 1987 he took a one-year sabbatical to Washington, DC, first to serve on a select committee reviewing Professional Military Education in the Department of Defense and later for six months as a Senior Research Fellow, Institute for National Security Studies, National Defense University. A Command Pilot with more than 4,500 flying hours, Phil has an abiding interest in military aviation history. His book Eagles of the RAF (1991) tells the remarkable stories of American airmen who flew for the British prior to America’s entry into World War II. Phil was promoted to brigadier general and retired in 1992.
In retirement, Phil has written three more books, including The RAF Eagle Squadrons (2009). He also edited the seven-volume compendium of interviews with members of the three Eagle Squadrons. He has been for many years the President of The Friends of the Air Force Academy Library, a non-profit group devoted to enhancing the quality of the McDermott Library as an educational, research, scientific, and cultural institution.