Military widow accepts CCAF degree Published Jan. 28, 2008 By Airman 1st Class Daryl Knee 90th Space Wing Public Affairs F. E. WARREN AFB, Wyo. -- Meagan Ayala accepted her late husband's Community College of the Air Force degree at the 90th Logistics Readiness Squadron conference room Jan. 17. Tech. Sgt. Alejandro "Alex" Ayala, 90th LRS, was approaching completion of his associate's degree when he died near the Iraq-Kuwait border in a non-hostile vehicle accident Nov. 18, 2007. "Education is so important," said Col. Mike Morgan, 90th Space Wing commander. "Sergeant Ayala was taking the time to pursue his education and was only a whisker's breadth away from receiving it." Whenever an Air Force base has an active-duty death, the education center reviews the education records for instances like this, said Sharon Edwards, Warren Education Center chief of education and training. "Everything just fell into place so well," she added. Mrs. Edwards recently visited Maxwell AFB, Ala., for a temporary duty assignment and happened upon CCAF leadership. She mentioned Sergeant Ayala had enrolled into the last class of his degree. "In a series of great coincidences, the CCAF leadership ran with the idea of posthumously graduating [Sergeant Ayala]," Mrs. Edwards said. "I've never heard of this type of thing happening before. Not only do requests for the degree normally take months to review, they graduated Sergeant Ayala out of cycle." CCAF graduations happen twice per year in April and November. "Meagan and her children can now be proud that their husband and father earned his degree before he passed away," Mrs. Edwards said. "The fact that he was enrolled and completing his degree while deployed says a lot about his determination. It says a lot about his character." Although Mrs. Ayala did not speak at the presentation, she plans to return to North Carolina to pursue a degree of her own.