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Carl Kielcheski MA ’67 convinced the Air Force that art is important for warriors – so important that they paid his way to earn a master’s degree in fine arts at CC while teaching at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs. They also appointed him that service’s only combat artist officer — ever.

While teaching everything from art appreciation to bronze casting at the AFA, Kielcheski initially enrolled in CC summer classes to beef up his studio experience, a 25-year-old second lieutenant among undergrads. He was a captain by the time he earned his master’s degree in studio art and art history.

After his commander commented that colleagues wouldn’t consider him “true blue” without a combat tour, Kielcheski volunteered to go if he could be a combat artist. He flew 23 missions in Vietnam, many piloted by his former art students. Kielcheski describes major paintings from that tour as “mission montages” showing the many people involved in missions that ranged from Agent Orange drops to downed-pilot rescues. “I tried to tell the whole story, including the kid at the desk, the cook, the medics on transports, the Vietnamese people, even the Hanoi Hilton. There was equal-
opportunity death in that war.”

Some of his Air Force colleagues wondered why warriors needed art classes, but Kielcheski demonstrated the historical importance of educating and motivating officers to protect cultural assets during war. He also recognized the importance of creative expression: “People think that art and the military mind are not compatible,” he says, “but the most creative people are the best at risk-taking and problem-solving.”

After a sabbatical to Sri Lanka, retirement as a lieutenant colonel, and a Fulbright in Bombay, Kielcheski switched to his “first love,” western art. Kielcheski’s acrylics sell in galleries in Cheyenne, Wyo., and Albuquerque, N.M. He and his wife Shirley live in Colorado Springs, as do daughter Carla Sides ’83 and son-in-law Charles Sides ’83.

– Anne Christensen


Profiles
Ruth Kolarik
Margaret Fuller Simpson '93
Carl Kielcheski MA '67
Ricki Spector Booker '90
Joe '81 and Edith Lowe Auner '80
Andrew Mudge '97
Miguel Romero '00
All-CC Grad Band National Eye

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