Embry-Riddle Graduate Commissioned by his Academic Mentor, A Retired Air Force Lieutenant General

San Antonio, Tex., January 26, 2007 -- During the day, Staff Sergeant Chrisjay Fontillas worked hard as a Materiel Management Instructor for the 345th Training Squadron at Lackland Air Force Base, at night he was an organized and dedicated student of professional aeronautics at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University – Worldwide’s San Antonio, Texas campus.

Next to his new wife Marianne, no one was a bigger champion of Fontillas’ studies than his professor, retired U.S. Air Force Lieutenant General David W. McIlvoy, who is also the Director of Academics at Embry-Riddle San Antonio. That student-teacher bond came full circle on January 26, 2007, when McIlvoy flew to Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama to commission Fontillas as a Second Lieutenant in the U.S. Air Force.

After many years of schooling at numerous colleges across the country intermingled with his military duty assignments, Fontillas graduated from the Embry-Riddle San Antonio campus in October 2006 with a bachelor of science degree in professional aeronautics with a minor in safety. His recognized military and academic success led to Fontillas’ selection for the Air Force Officer Training School at Maxwell Air Force Base, where he graduated with the Thomas Jefferson Academic Excellence Award as a Distinguished Graduate.

With his undergraduate aviation degree in hand and his commission as a Second Lieutenant, Fontillas will report to Laughlin Air Force Base in Del Rio, Texas to attend the Air Force Undergraduate Pilot Training Program.

“While planning his wedding and carrying out his military duties, CJ completed his private pilot’s license and went to school at night,” said Ron Popola, director of academic support at Embry-Riddle San Antonio. “He was more organized than all of us put together and knows Embry-Riddle’s programs inside-out and backwards.”

“It is always an honor to recognize the discipline and determination of a young man like CJ,” said McIlvoy. “He is a stellar example of the kind of military men and women that we, as educators, are privileged to work with on a daily basis at Embry-Riddle.” McIlvoy should be a good judge of character in that regard, having retired in January 2001 as Vice-Commander of the Air Education and Training Command headquartered at Randolph Air Force Base in Texas, following over 35 years of active duty service

McIlvoy was commissioned through the Air Force Reserve Officers Training Corps at the University of Illinois in June 1966. He earned his wings in July 1967. His aviation career encompasses over 5,000 flying hours in the B-52 including combat missions over North Vietnam. He has also flown the B-1, KC-135, and KC-10 aircraft. His decorations include eight Air Medals and three Distinguished Flying Crosses.

Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, the world’s largest, fully accredited university specializing in aviation and aerospace, offers more than 30 degree programs in its colleges of Arts and Sciences, Aviation, Business, and Engineering. The university educates more than 32,000 students annually in undergraduate and graduate programs at residential campuses in Prescott, Ariz., Daytona Beach, Fla., and Worldwide at more than 130 centers in the United States, Canada, Europe and the Middle East, and through online learning.

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