During our Academy days, Carl was an Honor Representative, played on the first Academy football teams to beat Army and Navy, earned Academic All-American honors, held a position on Wing Staff and graduated second in our class with majors in both Engineering Management and in Economics. After graduation, Carl attended UCLA where he earned his MBA in Business before attending pilot training at Williams AFB AZ.

After earning his wings, Carl served as a C-123 pilot in the 310th Tactical Airlift Wing at PhanRang SVN. Upon returning from VietNam, he was a T-38 instructor pilot (IP) in the 97th Flying Training Squadron at Williams AFB. From 1974 to 1976, Carl served as the Assistant Director, Admissions Liaison in the Academy's Admissions Office where he also coached freshman football and taught cadets to fly in the T-41. His next assignment was to Dhahran, Saudi Arabia where he served as the Education and Training Officer for the US Military Training Mission.

After separating from the Air Force, he was hired by Ross Perot and spent three years working for Electronic Data Systems in Dallas TX . His EDS positions included working on project startups in national flood insurance and banking marketing, serving as the manager of corporate compensation, and running the corporate real estate operation.

Beginning in 1980 he then worked for Atlantic Richfield Company (ARCO) for nineteen years where he was their planning analyst for synthetic fuels, provided support for an Australian coal project, and managed groups in personnel, R&D facilities and administration, materials and purchasing, and natural gas marketing. In his final ARCO job, Carl was the executive responsible for corporate real estate, services, and aviation worldwide in Los Angeles CA. ARCO's flight operations included Boeing 737's, Gulfstream II's and IV's, Hawker 700's, Cessna 172's, a Twin Otter, and roughly 40,000 hours of chartered fixed wing and helicopter support annually.

Along the way, Carl served on the alumni board of the Anderson School at UCLA, managed the operations center for boxing at the 1984 Olympics, managed accreditation for the 1991 Olympic Festival in Los Angeles, consulted in executive and emergency communications for the 1994 World Cup in soccer, and had many other roles as a volunteer. Carl maintained his reserve commission and served as an Academy Admissions Liaison Officer until retiring as a Lt. Colonel.

He also taught one section of Management as a Volunteer Instructor in the USAFA Department of Management each term and did so for twelve semesters. In recognition of his many years of service as a volunteer instructor, the Department awards annually the The Carl Janssen Outstanding Contributor Award recognizing the “above and beyond” contributions of a faculty member who supports teaching, research, and service missions. Today, he is fully retired and enjoys giving tours of the Academy for anyone's family and/or friends who might visit Colorado. Carl says, "The place gave me a great start in life, and I have all of the passes I need to go anywhere anyone wants to go over there."

In addition to sponsoring several cadets, Debbie and Carl actively support the Academy through their life membership in the Sabre Society and their ongoing membership in the Blue & Silver Club. Carl headed the committee that ran our 35th year reunion and he and Debbie often host class events at their home. For our 40th Reunion, Carl contacted the families of our deceased classmates who aren't interred at the Academy Cemetery which enabled us to install memorial markers for each of them there as a class project.

His proudest achievements are his 41 years of marriage to Debbie (they waited to get married until the day after graduation), their two married daughters, Heidi West and Molly Graw, and their five grandsons.


"The Janssen Family" L-R: Back Row; Carl then Evan, Alex, Chris West, and Bill Graw.
Middle Row; Heidi West, Debbie, and Molly Graw.
Lower Row Grandsons; David West, Marty Graw and Van Graw.