More than a dozen NIU alumni are preparing for something radically different this fall, compared to previous years. Instead of preparing for another semester at NIU, 13 former members of the Department of Military Science’s Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) program will prepare to report for duty to the U.S. Army.
Graduates from the Department of Military Science’s Reserve Officers’ Training Corps.
ROTC is a college program that prepares young adults to become officers in the U.S. Military. The program includes early morning physical training three days a week that starts at 6:30 a.m., rigorous training exercises on and off campus, and Military Science classes that teach basic military skills, fundamentals of leadership and lay groundwork to become an Army officer.
The May commissioning ceremony, or military graduation, was steeped in tradition. Students first take an oath to their country and are officially admitted into the U.S. Military. Then they immediately graduate to the rank of Second Lieutenant when they receive two sets of gold bars, pinned by loved ones on the shoulders of their military uniform. The ceremony ends with the officer’s first salute, significant because it marks their transition from an officer trainee to a commissioned officer.
New officers then, as a form of respect, present a silver dollar to the enlisted service member who gives them their first official salute. After that, the new lieutenants remove a cover of the Huskie Alumni Project to reveal their engraved plate on the memorial. It signifies their transition from cadet to alum.
“These young men and women are setting forth on their new adventure of becoming the leaders of the American Army,” said scholarship and enrollment officer, Keith Buchanan. “They’ve been entrusted to the lives of the sons and daughters of American citizens to defend our nation. It’s been an honor and a privilege to watch them grow into the future of the U.S. Army.”
Congratulations to the following military officers:
- Joseph Boland – engineer, Ft. Leonardwood, Missouri
- Deandre Canty – quartermaster, Ft. Gregg-Adams, Virginia
- Elizabeth Carney – infantry, Ft. Moore, Georgia
- Johnathan Cato – ordnance, Ft. Gregg-Adams, Virginia
- Marquila Harthrone – ordnance, Ft. Gregg-Adams, Virginia
- Devin Johnson – chemical corps, Ft. Leonardwood, Missouri
- Bishnu Kafley – engineer, Ft. Leonardwood, Missouri
- Angel Latham – education delay, at NIU
- Ashwin Moses – aviation, Ft. Novosel, Alabama
- Nelson Robles Jr. – chemical corps, Ft. Leonardwood, Missouri
- Chelsea Smith– signal corps, Ft. Gordon, Georgia
- Kasondra Roby – adjutant general, Ft. Jackson, South Carolina
- Nicholas Wheeler – field artillery, Fort Sill, Kklahoma
Source: NIU Today CHHS News
