Awards and Change of Command

The Linganore NJROTC held its annual Awards/Change of Command ceremony on Tuesday, May 20. When my family and I arrived at 6:00, we discovered that the ceremony did not start for another half an hour. I wondered what we were going to do—then I saw Commander Lane.

After talking with him, my mother and my sisters went to the gym to find good seats, while I followed Commander to the classroom and began preparing for my new job as Master of Ceremonies (MC) for the event. Commander started the ceremony with an introduction of the purpose and thanks to all those who attended. When he gave me the podium, I started to call up recipients of the meritorious awards. These are only given to the top students in each level, and include the Distinguished Cadet and the Honor Cadet awards.

At first, I was a bit nervous to be in front of an audience as an MC without a microphone, but soon I stopped worrying. The audience was attentive, leaving the gym so quiet that my voice carried to the top of the bleachers with little effort. After the meritorious awards, representatives from the Sons of the American Revolution and the Veterans of Foreign Affairs presented awards to cadets whom they believed showed dedication and excellence in the program and in the community. Cadets Romano and Peterson were the recipients.

After these awards, I announced the change of command. I am very proud to say that I have been promoted to Operations Officer (Ops). I will be receiving my training from Cadet Romano, who has been promoted to Executive Officer (XO). In addition, Cadet Peterson is now the Commanding Officer (CO). In a special ceremony, our former CO, Higgins, presented the unit flag to Peterson as a symbol of handing command of the unit to him. Then, Peterson said a few humble words thanking the parents for attending the ceremony and for supporting the cadets in ROTC.

After the closing, parents and cadets convened for refreshments. The cake was cut by both Higgins and Peterson using one of the unit’s ceremonial swords. While the cake was being served, everyone was congratulating the cadets and taking pictures of the new staff. Normally, I don’t like to have my picture taken, but I was so excited to have gotten the officer’s position that I did not mind.

On a final note, I would like to thank the Munley sisters for managing the refreshment table and making sure that the necessary forks, cups, etc were available for use. This is one more detail that they have fine tuned for events over the year. Both sisters have done a great job organizing events and have inspired others to plan and hold additional events for next year.