GMC News
Commissioning Ceremony
Thirteen GMC Junior College cadets have completed Georgia Military College’s Early Commissioning Program and will receive their commissioning into the U.S. Army as second lieutenants on Friday, May 26, 6:00 p.m., in the Goldstein Center for the Performing Arts.
The guest speaker will be CPT Joshua Vogel, Transportation Corps Assignment Officer for the Army’s Human Resource Command in Alexandria, VA. CPT Vogel commanded the largest company in the 1st Cavalry Division during Operation Iraqi Freedom, from October 2003 through February 2005.
During the commissioning ceremony, the cadets will recite the Oath of Office, after which family members will pin on bars denoting their new rank. Finally, the new second lieutenants will be saluted for the first time by an enlisted person of their choosing. The hand salute is centuries old and probably originated when men in armor raised their hands to their helmets and lifted the visors so they could be identified. The salute has always been one of the essentials of military courtesy and is considered a symbol of mutual respect and a sign of the camaraderie among service personnel. As a standard practice, the junior initiates the salute, and the senior returns it. In keeping with a time-honored tradition, the newly appointed officers will present a silver dollar to the first enlisted person to salute them after they have received their commission.
The cadets who will become second lieutenants on Friday, May 26, are Justin Cajero from DeQueen, Arkansas; Andrew Frazier from Salters, South Carolina; Shawn Frazin from Weston, Florida; Jessica Gillespie from Seneca, South Carolina; Brandon Hoeksema from Port Charlotte, Florida; Jacob Ivey from Parrish, Florida; Frank Lawson from Atlanta, Georgia; Kenneth Liu from Fremont, California; Kenneth Quirk from Richmond, Virginia; Nathanael Ramos from Signal Mountain, Tennessee; Heather Stacey from Kathleen, Georgia; Teala Watson from Lithonia, Georgia; and Tommy L. Williams, III from Atlanta, Georgia.
GMC’s Early Commissioning Program, one of only five such programs in the nation, is a demanding program in which cadets develop the skills necessary to be leaders in the United States Army within a period of two years.
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