Airport business park road renamed for retired major general

The first road in the Colorado Springs Airport’s business park was renamed Bud Breckner Boulevard on today to honor a retired major general and Vietnam prisoner of war who served six years on the airport’s advisory commission and helped get the park built.

The airport renamed Canadair Point for Breckner, who died at age 74 on Feb. 16, 2008, in a car crash near his Monument home, to honor his work to get the 272-acre Cresterra business park open south of the airport’s passenger terminal, said Wally Miller, who served on the commission with Breckner. The road is the primary access to offices in the park for Northrop Grumman Corp. and The Aerospace Corp. and provides temporary access to the Army’s rapid deployment terminal.

While serving on the commission, Breckner helped win approval from local and federal officials for the park and the rapid deployment terminal. He also served on a committee that helped develop detailed plans for the project. The park is designed to generate income for the airport through lease payments by park tenants and economic development opportunities for the Colorado Springs area through jobs created by employers in the park.

“Bud worked long and hard to plant the seeds that would become this place,” Miller said during the dedication ceremony that featured a fly-over by two F-16 fighters from the 120th Tactical Fighter Squadron of the Colorado Air National Guard.

The ceremony was attended by four members of Breckner’s family: son Randy, daughter Kristen Evans, granddaughter Holliday Evans and great-grandson Cody Lee Rusk. A native of Ohio, Breckner began his career as an Air Force fighter pilot in 1955, was shot down over Hanoi in 1972, spent nine months as a prisoner of war and eventually became vice commandant of cadets at the Air Force Academy and commander of the 17th Air Force in Germany.