Brief from the Chairman of the Board
Summer 2026
Greetings Tailhookers,
As we enter the summer months, your Tailhook Educational Foundation (TEF) and Tailhook Association (THA) staffs are in the final planning stages for Hook ’26 at the Grand Sierra Resort (GSR) in Reno. We expect another full house this year. Exhibition floor space and GSR rooms sold out early and we expect another exciting symposium across the spectrum of innovative exhibitions and displays, captivating panel sessions, enjoyable social events and record numbers of active-duty and retired attendees. Traditionally, in the summer issue of The Hook, TEF summarizes our scholarship selection processes and results. Between mid-December and mid-February each year, TEF accepts scholarship applications from the best and brightest of Naval Aviation legacy students. This year, over 700 students worked to provide top-shelf scholarship applications to compete in TEF’s merit-based selection process. After our scholarship committee completed its thorough screening and grading process, 160 students made their way to the top of the selection list and earned TEF grants. Half of these scholars were graduating high school seniors and the other half were current college students. Four recipients were Gold Star students and four were enlisted applicants. TEF will award over $750,000 in scholarship grants to the deserving students selected this year, an increase of nearly $50,000 compared to 2025. Our 2026 scholarship average grant value is just over $5,000 per grant, an increase of nearly $500 from last year. Two generous TEF supporters doubled their existing $200,000 perennial portfolio in 2026, bringing each to the $400,000 level. A $400,000 perennial scholarship yields a $20,000 annual grant in perpetuity. This means TEF’s top awards are now two $20,000 grants, up from one $20,000 grant in 2025. Also, of note in 2026, TEF increased our minimum grant awarded from $3,000 to $3,500 to stay aligned with our strategic objective to increase our minimum grants by $500 every five years to keep pace with ever-increasing college costs. Thus, beginning in 2026, all TEF’s grants were awarded at $3,500 or more. The chart below provides a further breakdown of TEF’s scholarship grants awarded in 2026.
• 2 x $20,000 • 1 x $7,000
• 2 x $15,000 • 1 x $ 6,000
• 1 x $12,500 • 1 x $5,500
• 2 x $12,000 • 38 x $5,000
• 1 x $11,000 • 1 x $4,500
• 10 x $10,000 • 90 x $3,500
• 10 x $ 4,000
Required Minimum Distributions (RMD), Qualified Charitable Distributions (QCD) and/ or highly appreciated securities (HAS or stocks/ bonds). Another significant type of support to TEF is through planned giving when TEF is listed as a beneficiary of a trust. Over the past ten years, TEF has received over $1,500,000 in charitable planned giving donations. These philanthropic gifts are game changers for your foundation. If you have any questions about RMD, QCD, HAS donations or how to join our list of planned givers, please do not hesitate to contact us. Each summer we also applaud the most important piece of our scholarship program, our hardworking application screeners. These individuals spent dozens of hours reviewing and scoring our high school senior and college applicants. I would like to take this opportunity to pass on our grateful appreciation to these volunteer screeners. If you know any of them or see them, please thank them as well. Finally, as we remind you every time we can, without the charitable backing from our like-minded organizational and industry partners and particularly our Tailhook members and supporters, TEF’s scholarship program could not exist. On behalf of TEF’s board of directors and staff and especially our student applicants who work hard to earn a TEF grant each year, thank you for your resolute and ever-growing support to our foundation. We look forward to seeing you at Hook ’26. Please visit us at the TEF booth just past the front door of the GSR convention floor. Thank you again for your continued support to TEF and Tailhook.
VADM Ted “Twig” Branch, USN(Ret)
Chairman of the Board
Tailhook Educational Foundation
TEF GiveDirect Donation QR Code
TAX ID: 33-0487778
About The TEF
The Tailhook Educational Foundation (TEF) is a charitable nonprofit California corporation created in February 1992. The Foundation's charter is "to educate the nation's public with regard to the history and present day activities of the United States Navy carrier aviation and its importance to our country's national security."
The main activities of the Foundation are:
To support the Tailhook Association
To distribute The Hook magazine to schools throughout the nation at no cost to the schools
To provide scholarships to qualified applicants
To support U.S Navy and Naval Aviation leadership
TEF Scholarships
TEF awards over 100 scholarships annually averaging more than $4,000 per grant with our top grant awarded at $20,000
Funding TEF scholarships is achieved either annually or perennially.
Perennial Scholarships
A perennial scholarship is funded by donating $70,000 or more to TEF. A $70,000 TEF Scholarship portfolio yields a $3,500 grant for your named scholarship per year in perpetuity.
An $80,000 TEF Scholarship portfolio yields a $4,000 grant for your named scholarship per year in perpetuity. Several of TEF’s perennial scholarship portfolios now exceed $100,000, all yielding at least $5,000 in an annual grant.
Sponsors funding perennial scholarships should also add funds to their portfolio whenever they can to ensure these portfolios continue to grow to keep pace with the increasing costs of colleges (1%~2% per year). When donations to existing perennial portfolios reach $10,000 or more, the annual grant yield for that scholarship increases $500 per year from that year on.
Annual Pass-through scholarships
An annual or “pass-through” scholarship is funded by providing TEF a payment of $3,000 or more each year to sponsor your named scholarship that year.
Pass through scholarship donations can also be for more than $3,000, and they can change each year by donating more than $3,000.
TEF’s current annual scholarships average more than $3,000 with our top grant awarded at $15,000.
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Gold Star Scholarships
TEF has a special interest in our Gold Star applicants. We will award Gold Star scholarships to Naval Aviation legacy students who lost their TEF eligible sponsor parent while they were still serving on active-duty.
These scholarships are not awarded based on merit; all qualified Gold Star students will receive an annual grant each year they apply.
Proof of sponsorship is the parent-sponsor's
CASREP, OBIT (etc.). TEF will award Gold Star grants for up to four years to qualified undergraduate students at an accredited college or university. Gold Star scholarships are only available to those students whose parent-sponsor passed away while still on active-duty, not their grandparent-sponsor.
Enlisted scholarships
Current or former Naval Aviation (USN, USMC, USCG) enlisted personnel who earned their Aircrew wings or who served on a US Navy aircraft carrier in ship's company or in an embarked staff are themselves eligible to apply for a TEF Enlisted scholarship. These scholarships are merit-based and competitive, however TEF has found most qualified current, or former enlisted TEF scholarship applicants who apply will earn a scholarship based on their Naval Aviation related enlisted service to our nation. Since these enlisted personnel are also qualified as eligible TEF scholarship sponsors, their children and grandchildren may also apply for TEF scholarships, but they need to fill out and submit TEF's graduating High school senior or current college student applications, not the enlisted applications.
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TEF awards over 120 scholarships annually averaging more than $4,000 per grant with our top grant awarded at $20,000.
A number of our annual scholarships are awarded to students pursuing STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) curriculum.
All TEF grants assist Naval Aviation legacy undergraduate students obtain a higher education.
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Scholarship Eligibility
To qualify for a Tailhook Educational Foundation scholarship, an individual must graduate from high school and be the natural, step, or adopted child or grandchild of a current or former (U.S. Navy / U.S. Marine Corps / U.S. Coast Guard) Naval Aviator, Naval Flight Officer, or Naval Aircrewman. Also eligible are individuals or children/grandchildren of individuals who are serving or have served on board a U.S. Navy Aircraft Carrier. Eligible applicants must also be accepted for undergraduate enrollment at an accredited college.
Click the link below for the relevant application
Applications are available at 1200 NOON PT on 15 December 2025 through Monday, 1200 NOON PT 16 February 2026
Scholarship Timeline
