Veterans Day Thank You

by Krista Norton | November 13, 2025

US Major Andy Davis, call sign “CHAOS”, is a fourth-generation pilot in the Davis family of Syracuse and has flown several models of F-16 fighter jets in his 12 years in the Active-Duty Air Force. He has had several assignments and deployments across the globe, including combat missions against ISIS in the Middle East. And he was the speaker at Tuesday’s Veterans Day Celebration at USD 494. 

The annual Syracuse School’s Veterans Day Celebration was held in the McCoy Auditorium on Tuesday, as a way for students and faculty to honor veterans within the community. 

The” National Anthem” was performed by the sixth-grade bell choir directed by elementary music teacher, Alyssa Banning followed by the seventh and eighth grade choir performing an acapella “My Country Tis of Thee”, directed by junior/senior high school music teacher, Corrie Upson.

Principal Josh Houston then read the names of recent SHS graduates who have enlisted including Reese Hart, Jason Hart, Aiden Rash, Uriel Diaz, Charity Maune, Karen Solano, Emmitt Cooper, and Gilberto Duran. 2025 SHS Graduate Levi Davis was home, having just completed boot camp from the US Marine Corps. 

Local veteran, Mark Davis, had the honor to introduce his nephew, Major Andy Davis, son of Mark’s deceased brother, Ray Kim, a 1975 SHS graduate. 

Andy began by answering the question, “Why do we celebrate veterans?”, continuing, he explained, “Because since the day our country was founded, it was founded on certain principals, freedom of speech, religion, press. Our veterans who serve work every day to protect those principals.” 

“All those things that I can attest to, being in other countries, we are so fortunate in this country to be able to choose where we go to school, choose what religion we are, choose where we live,” said Andy, “We owe a huge debt of gratitude to all those who have served and those who continue to protect those ideals for us.” 

“I have a strong lineage from Syracuse, many of them have sat in these exact same seats and graduated from SHS,” said Andy proudly. 

Andy is a graduate of the United States Air Force Academy, Class of 2009. He has also served as an instructor at the prestigious Air Force Fighter Weapons School, Air Force’s version of the Navy’s Top Gun School. 
Major Davis continues to serve in the Colorado Air National Guard, flying F-16s and is also a Boeing 737 Captain at United Airlines.

Andy’s decision to serve in the military came because of the events on September 11, 2001. He was a fourteen-year-old seventh grader, home sick from school. “My mom came downstairs and told me I needed to come watch the news with her,” said Andy, “As I walked into the living room, I was greeted by the horrifying images of a large airliner crashing into the first World Trade Center tower.”  While watching the broadcast, he made a commitment to himself and his country that day to serve, “I was infuriated by what people had tried to do to my fellow Americans.” 

He admits he was not the best student in high school, but he wanted to fly fighter jets in the Air Force and knew the best chance he had was to attend the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs. After graduation, he was selected to go to Air Force Pilot Training in Mississippi, learning to fly two different types of Air Force trainers, then assigned to F-16s, “My first choice!” 

Throughout active duty, he was deployed several times overseas, “While those were difficult on myself and family, they were some of the best times of my life because I got to serve with incredible people and made lifelong relationships.” 

He left Active-Duty Air Force in 2020 and joined the Colorado Air National Guard, still flying F-16s and today, flies three to four times a month, “Our squadron still deploys, and we will be deploying in January, so I am preparing for that.” 

Explaining his experiences flying the F-16, he said the jet was designed in the 1970s and still flying today with an altitude up to 50,000 feet. “I have been asked if I can see the curvature of the earth at fifty thousand feet and the answer is no.”  

While flying at that altitude, going as fast as he could, he was just under Mach 2, (two times the speed of sound) he looked at ground speed, which was just under 1,950 MPH, “I was really cookin!” 
“It took me four hours to drive here from Denver; I could have flown here with the F-16 in about 12 minutes!” Andy related.

Taking questions from the crowd, students were curious about all aspects of his experiences. 

Has he flown above 50,000 feet? His answer was no. “Once you get up in higher altitude, we would need a space suit because your blood can boil and instantly kill you.”

Been knocked unconscious? Explaining how that could happen, he said, “When you maneuver the F-16, you pull what is called Gs.”  

“Sitting here, we are all at one G, if you weigh 100 pounds, you feel like you weigh 100 pounds,” adding, “When you pull Gs, you multiply the weight that your body is, by the how many Gs you’re pulling.”

Pulling 9 Gs which is what the F-16 is capable of doing, your body essentially weighs 900 pounds. “A G induced loss of consciousness is bad for your neck and body because it compresses the spine and neck, pulling the blood down out of your head.”

They are trained to squeeze their legs, stomach and arms, to push the blood back into their head, “If we do not do that, we can start to lose vision, could go unconscious and flying at 500 MPH, that is not where you want to be!” 
Today, some of the F-16s have new software. If the pilot goes unconscious, the airplane will pull itself up from hitting the ground. It’s called auto ground collision avoidance system, “I have personally witnessed it saving friends’ lives.”

His helmet has pieces of technology that project information in front of his eyes and costs about  $200,000.
Another question was are there women fighter pilots? Andy said about ten percent are females, “Some of the best I have flown with are females and some of my best friends to this day.”

How does he maintain physical fitness and reflexes as he ages? He admitted it is difficult because flying any fighter airplane ages your body a lot faster than if you did not fly a fighter aircraft. 

They have Physical Therapists available to them with specific exercises to help maintain their fitness. To maintain reflexes, he keeps up on his studying, “We have thousands of pages of documents in our secure facility, I have to stay on top of the enemy tactics, so I don’t have to use as many brain vibes, so it just happens!”

Are the jets used as a distraction or decoy? Andy answers by saying, “In the wars we are training for currently, we will use the F-16 and older airplanes as essentially decoys, for missiles to get shot at so the more expensive planes do not get shot at,” adding, “So yes, I am a decoy in my airplane.”  

What was my scariest mission? “A lot of times the missions that I now think were the scariest, I had no idea they were scary at the time,” adding, “Looking back, sometimes I think that was probably the closest I came to dying.” 
 

Andy is married to Susan, and they have three children, Duke, age 6, Jack, 5 and Evelyn, 2. They live in Parker, Colo., and in his free time he likes to hunt, fish, mountain bike, and snowboard. 

Andy admits there are inner service rivalries between all branches of the military, “But when it is time to get the mission done, we are extremely professional with each other and rely on other branches.” 

The celebration concluded with the veterans in attendance coming up front and introducing themselves, followed by the students shaking each one of their hands, receiving notes of appreciation from the students. 
They were then invited to walk in the lower-level hallway to greet elementary students and staff. They were welcomed by applause, high fives, while waving their flags. Andy commented the students were very respectful and it was pretty meaningful to see all the kids waving the American flags and thanking all the veterans.