Although her Quaker heritage opposed her to military academies, she also believed her son Richard should graduate from college. Despite her opposition, Richard gained admission to West Point on his second try, having narrowly failed mathematics on his first academic testing. As the outbreak of the Korean War had decimated the Class of 1950, Secord's Class of 1955 underwent extraordinarily thorough combat training during his tenure. Secord fought, with limited success, on the academy's varsity boxing team for three years; on his coach's advice, he gave up the sport to evade possible damage to his eyesight. Secord graduated from West Point in 1955 and was then commissioned in the USAF, completing pilot training in August 1956. Secord later obtained an MSc in international affairs from the George Washington University in 1972, as well as graduating from the Air Command and Staff College in 1966 and the Naval War College in June 1972. Military career Training and early postings Secord served as a flight instructor from 1956 to 1959 at Laredo Air Force Base, and from 1959 to 1961 as an instructor and operations officer at Tinker Air Force Base. During the latter assignment, he was posted to the University of Oklahoma to study for a master's degree in English Literature. While progressing to the point of needing only his thesis to gain his degree, he met and married his wife, Jo Ann. In August 1961 he joined covert operations in what would become the 1st Air Commando Wing, remaining there until 1965. As part of Operation Farm Gate, the wing was the first American aviation unit assigned to Vietnam. Secord flew over 200 combat missions between March 1962 to January 1963, flying AT-28s. One of the Vietnamese pilots he met during this assignment was Nguyen Cao Ky, later the president of Vietnam. Another new acquaintance there was Brigadier General Harry "Heinie" Aderholt. Also during this time, Secord was temporarily assigned to the Imperial Iranian Air Force as an adviser (January to July 1963, January to May 1964, January to March 1965). After graduating from the Air Command and Staff College in 1966, Secord returned to Vietnam as an air operations officer, before being transferred to Thailand's Udorn Royal Thai Air Force Base in August 1966. Belatedly promoted to major, he joined Operation Waterpump to train the Royal Lao Air Force. During this time Secord was detailed to the Central Intelligence