LARAMIE – The members of the 2026 Wyoming Intercollegiate Athletics Hall of Fame class will be busy this weekend.
 
Colonel Richard Peace's itinerary takes the cake.
 
"My whole schedule is mayhem right now," the former Cowboy wide receiver said this week as he prepares to be inducted with his 1996 football teammates.
 
Peace, the commander of the Combat Readiness Training Center, Georgia Air National Guard, made the five-and-a-half-hour drive from his office in Savannah, Ga., to Montgomery, Ala., on Thursday night.
 
He checked into his hotel in the wee hours Friday, met up with his squadron at Maxwell Air Force Base, and then they flew F-35 and F-16 fighter jets to Ebbing Air National Guard Base in Fort Smith, Ark.
 
After refueling on Friday morning, the squadron flew a "low altitude route" – 500 feet and 500 knots – through the Rocky Mountains to Francis E. Warren Air Force Base in Cheyenne.
 
Once the squadron puts "the jets to bed," Peace and the other pilots will drive to Laramie for the UW Athletics Hall of Fame banquet Friday night.
 
"My parents are coming up, my family's flying out from Atlanta, so we'll all go to the Hall of Fame dinner," Peace said. "My buddies who are flying with me are going to the dinner as well, so that'll be fun. My fighter pilot bros kind of get to see a little bit of my college life."
 
On Saturday morning, Peace and the other pilots will drive back to Cheyenne to prep the jets. They will execute a flyover of War Memorial Stadium as the Cowboys open the home schedule against Northern Colorado at 2 p.m.
 
This will be Peace's second flyover at his alma mater. He was a wingman flying an F-16 above the stadium when UW hosted Texas on Sept. 12, 2009.
 
Now Peace will be leading the formation in an F-35.
 
"This is an opportunity to come back and not only represent the United States of America and represent the Air National Guard, but to kind of show the state of Wyoming and the people who supported me as a player that the scholarship that I earned and my time there was spent well," Peace said. "I hope that people can see that I turned that opportunity into something meaningful. The University of Wyoming gave me a tremendous opportunity."
 
Peace and his crew will fly back to Cheyenne, land the jets and then take a helicopter to Laramie to participate in the 2026 Hall of Fame class being honored on the field at halftime.
 
And after the game?
 
"I'll enjoy the Laramie nightlife, spend a little time back in some of my old haunts, kind of showing off to my buddies how cool I used to be," Peace said. "Then Sunday morning we'll head back to Cheyenne, we'll pick up the jets, and we're just going to one hop back to Montgomery. I'll drop the jets off in Montgomery on Sunday, and then I'll head home, change suitcases again, and then Monday I'm flying up to Alpena, Michigan, for some meetings for the Air Force."
 
A flyover with a Hall of Fame stop
 
Peace's parents were both in the Air Force. As a football and track standout at Coronado High School in Colorado Springs, the spreadsheet he made weighing the pros and cons of his college choice had the Air Force Academy ranked No. 1.
 
The combination of the Air Force needing fewer pilots at the time and relatives and friends who were cadets encouraging him to go enjoy a "regular college" experience led Peace to UW.
 
"I moved Wyoming up to number one, and it's probably the best decision I ever made in my life, to be honest," Peace reflected.
 
Although most of Peace's football offers were to play defensive back, UW head coach Joe Tiller allowed him to play wide receiver. That meant learning the ropes from 2025 National Football Foundation College Hall of Fame inductee Ryan Yarborough as a young player and competing alongside 1996 Biletnikoff Award winner Marcus Harris as an upperclassman.
 
Following a redshirt season, Peace played on the 1993 Cowboys team that earned a share of the WAC title. UW finished 8-3 in the regular season with memorable wins over Utah, Air Force, Fresno State and San Diego State before suffering a lopsided loss to No. 20 Kansas State in the Copper Bowl.
 
"My parents came out for the bowl game. It was over Christmas, so my mom got like this little Christmas tree, and she set it up in the hotel room," Peace said. "We had a little mini-Christmas in the hotel room with my family there, so it was pretty memorable. It was a lot of fun. I'm trying to forget the game, but I think that one's going to stay with me forever."
 
The 1996 Cowboys finished 10-2 overall, including a legendary 25-24 victory at Colorado State to clinch the Pacific Division. UW finished the season with an excruciating 28-25 overtime loss to No. 6 BYU in the inaugural WAC Championship Game.
 
"It was just a special year," Peace said. "I think we knew we were going to have a good team. I don't think any of us knew we were going to be that good. It was just such a great group of dudes, some really talented players. We had an amazing coaching staff. …
 
"The thing that really stands out the most for me from that '96 season is that we really overachieved, we did it as a team, and every single person mattered. If you took any piece of the machine away, it would have been an exponential decrease in our performance. Every person had a role, everyone played their role perfectly, and it led to a pretty phenomenal season."
 
Peace, who also ran track for the Pokes, finished his career with 72 receptions for 972 yards and six touchdowns. He graduated from UW with a degree in mechanical engineering.
 
From Cowboy to Colonel
 
After leaving Laramie, it wasn't time to fly, but aviation was Peace's passion. The self-described "Air Force brat" grew up watching fighter jets take off and land, going to air shows and building model airplanes he would hang from the ceiling with fishing wire.
 
"I was kind of like, 'Well, if I can't fly fighter jets, I'd love to go build them,'" Peace said. "I thought I'd study mechanical engineering so I could get a job at Lockheed (Martin) or something like that and kind of get involved in the F-16 program at the time, which I ultimately did."
 
Peace worked at a nuclear power plant in Texas before accepting an engineering position with Delta Air Lines.
 
"I knew flying is what I wanted to do, but it just kind of seemed like it just wasn't going to work out for me, and I accepted that," Peace said. "And then September 11, 2001, happened. I was sitting in my cubicle at Delta, watching the towers come down on the TV and all that."
 
Peace joined the Air National Guard and was sent to pilot training, earning his commission in 2003 through Officer Training School at Maxwell Air Force Base, Ala. He ompleted specialized undergraduate pilot training at Columbus AFB, Miss., in 2004, and fixed wing qualification training at Vance AFB, Okla., in 2005. He is a command pilot with over 2,800 military flight hours and more than 600 combat hours.
 
During his 23 years flying with the Air National Guard, Peace, whose call sign is "Sheriff," has been deployed in support of Operations Southern Watch, Iraqi Freedom, Enduring Freedom, New Dawn, Inherent Resolve, and Noble Eagle.
 
Being inducted into the UW Athletics Hall of Fame on the 25^th anniversary of 9/11 and then flying over War Memorial Stadium with the Cowboys commemorating the anniversary with a special decal on their helmets are remarkable full-circle moments for Peace.
 
"It's emotionally overwhelming," Peace said. "I'm the person I am today because of things that happened between the goalposts at War Memorial Stadium. I wouldn't be who I am today without that time, my time in Wyoming, those experiences. …
 
"I feel pretty lucky that I got to live both my dreams. I got to play football at a high level, and then I got to fly airplanes at a high level, and I don't know what else I could ask for."
 
Follow Ryan for more stories on Wyoming athletics on X at @By_RyanThorburn on Facebook at Wyoming Athletics and Instagram at wyoathletics. Also follow him at Pokes Insider at Gowyo.com/pokesinsider.
 
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