If you didn’t play hockey at Air Force Academy in the late 1980s or if you haven’t attended a Falcons hockey alumni function you might not know “Rolo”. But you most likely have heard of him and quite possibly have heard from him.

Lieutenant Colonel (retired) Kurt Rohloff is as passionate about Air Force hockey today as he was from 1986-90, when he laced ’em up for the Falcons. Rohloff, who comes from a strong hockey family, was just the second player to be selected captain two seasons in a row when that honor was bestowed upon the defenseman during the 1988-89 and ’89-90 seasons.

His class was the second in school history to have four winning seasons, going a cumulative 64-49-4 during his four seasons.

Upon graduating, Rohloff went to pilot training at Vance AFB in Enid, Oklahoma, and flew KC-10s. On active duty he was stationed at March AFB in Riverside County, California, from 1991-95 and then at Travis AFB in Fairfield, California, from 1995-2002, flying the KC-10. He totaled 2,700 hours in the KC-10 all over the world, including several deployments to United Arab Emirates in support of Operation Enduring Freedom.

He retired in 2014 as a Lieutenant Colonel in the Reserves in the Tanker Airlift Control Center (TACC) at Scott AFB in Illinois. He is currently a first officer on the 787 for American Airlines based out of Chicago. He also has flown the MD-80, 737, 727, 757 and 767 for American. He is also still involved in hockey, helping coach his son’s high school team.

He graciously took time to speak with the Flight Path about his pride in Air Force hockey, the importance of alumni gatherings and his favorite memories from hockey and military service.

As passionate as you are about hockey, clearly you’re just as invigorated by Air Force’s alumni gatherings. What is the group hoping to accomplish?

I think we’re trying to establish a solid foundation to help support the team. The team doesn’t get as much money as they need to be successful from the government anymore so it falls on the alumni to make up the difference for that. As an alumni group I think, especially as we get older and have more resources, we can help fund the team and things like furnishing the new team room that’s going to be completed this next fall. It will help out with the locker room. We can fund things like a night at the hotel for the team if they need to get away from the Academy.

What have been the most noticeably differences to you when you compare Air Force hockey in the 1980s to today?

It’s unbelievable where hockey has come from when we played in the late ’80s. It’s not just Air Force’s program, it’s everybody’s program. The way the kids train, the way they eat, the way they sleep, the systems they use, the way they practice, and the equipment they use is phenomenal compared to what we used to use back in those days. It’s not only in the way they recruit. Frank was a big force in starting up junior hockey leagues, and as soon as he came to Air Force he started to use the juniors to recruit kids because if you brought in more mature kids into the Air Force instead of the 18- or 19-year-old kids who didn’t have the study habits for the Academy and hockey, now he’s bringing in kids who are 20. They can handle the academic workload, they’re more mature and they just do better at the Academy. The hockey team likes to brag they have the highest GPA of any team at the Academy.

What are some of your favorite memories from your playing days?

I think back to the last game I had. Our last series we played Alabama-Huntsville, and the first night on Friday we were down 6-4 with three minutes left in the game, and I felt like something was going to happen. I told the boys it’s time for some Falcon magic, and we scored four goals in the next three minutes and won 8-6. So that was one of my more favorite memories. My parents were there. My girlfriend, who’s now my wife, was there. So you remember those kinds of things.

Your peer group from the Academy seems really tight. How have you been able to maintain such close friendships?

They really are special. The experiences we went through at the Academy in general and then playing on the team just brought us all very close together throughout the years. We’ve maintained contact. A lot of that has to do with the Air Force in general. When you leave home at 18 years old and you come to a place like the Academy you leave your family behind. Back then we didn’t have contact with them. We didn’t have cel phones or anything like that. We had to get on a pay phone and we got to do that very infrequently. So the people you came to rely on were your friends and your teammates. And I think that’s why we spent so much time together doing those things; that was our support group, and I think that’s why we’re so close even today.

We did plenty of stuff overseas. In my retirement ceremony when I was asked about what was most important to me. One of our church elders, who was a Vietnam veteran himself, asked me what most memories were, I said it was my friends, who became my family. I have so many stories I could tell. All the times we could sit here, as you’ve heard, and tell stories all night if we wanted to. Just being able to spend that time together every year and share those memories and those stories that’s what stands out.

Do you see the AFA hockey alumni weekends picking up steam?

We were hoping to get 100 people, and we had about 55 alumni (in October), and with all their guests we were well over a 100 people. We’re very excited and we hope to build on that. … There are some guys who really wanted to be here but either had prior commitments or military commitments. We’ll do it again next year the first home series in October and we hope to keep making it better and better.

As we celebrate Veteran’s Day in 2017, I’d like to thank Lt. Col. Kurt Rohloff and his fellow Academy graduates, as well as all of the brave men and women who have fought for and continue to fight for our freedoms in the United States.

 Please check out the Flight Path’s previous alumni updates

On Lieutenant Colonel Scott Bradley

On Brigadier General Kevin McManaman

Follow @AFAFlightPath on Twitter for Air Force hockey updates

©First Line Editorial 2017