Brigadier General Cheryl Kearney, right, had a promotion and a reitrement ceremony last year at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo. The 1979 Knoch High School graduate received her promotion from Lt. Gen. Jay Silveria, the current superintendent of the academy.

CENTER TWP — After 35 years in the Air Force, much of it spent watching the Russians, a Knoch High School graduate has returned to Western Pennsylvania to retire.

Cheryl Kearney's retirement as a brigadier general was effective Dec. 1. She moved to Beaver County in mid-October in the midst of her terminal leave.

Kearney, the oldest daughter of William and Karen Lynd of Saxonburg, graduated from Knoch in 1979.

She's still is remembered by one of the teachers at Knoch.

Fred Bernard, who retired in 2003, was the girls track coach in 1979 and has strong recollections of the future general.

He said, “I remember her very well. She was one of my track statisticians. She was the best statistician I had in 30 years of coaching.

“I signed up for ROTC at the University of Pittsburgh in December 1983 and was commissioned in the Air Force on Jan. 6, 1984, as a second lieutenant,” Kearney said. “I majored in legal studies.”

Then she took career field training at Lowery Air Force Base's intelligence training course She had two powerful motivations for signing up, she said.

“They offered a $100 a month, and I was a poor college student like everyone else,” she said. “My boyfriend was already in the Air Force. He enlisted and left the day after he graduated from Knoch.”

This is an excerpt from an article that appeared in Wednesday's Butler Eagle. Subscribe online or in print to read the full article.