A rumor that circulated online in May 2025 claimed U.S. military officers sentenced Gen. James "Jim" Slife, former vice chief of staff of the Air Force, to hang to death on May 12.

Then Air Force Vice Chief of Staff Gen. James Slife speaks with civic leaders from Grand Forks, N.D. during a meeting at the Pentagon, Arlington, Va., Nov. 21, 2024.

In 1971, as a high school senior and captain of the football team, I assumed a college athletic scholarship was in my future.