Airman First Class (Separated) Ken Hackman is an Air Force veteran with over 40 years in the service. He spent 5 years on active duty and another 35 as a civilian employee. Hackman was a photographer and later a photographic manager. As a civilian photographer, he covered Air Force operations during the Vietnam War. “The biggest accomplishment in my career was getting the Air Force to agree that we needed to educate our photographers and not merely train them. This resulted in our participation in university level education that began in 1971 and continues to this day,” said Hackman. Other highlights include covering military participants in five summer and three Winter Olympics, documenting the last series of above-ground atomic tests in the United States, photographing numerous Presidential Inaugurations, and flying most of the aircraft in the Air Force inventory from 1960 to 1995.
Hackman continues to mentor, inspire and stay active within the military photojournalism and multimedia community.