Abreezy overcast sky gave way to a sunny afternoon as students, family, friends, mentors and speakers gathered at Goleta Beach for UC Santa Barbara’s U.S. Army Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) Surfrider Battalion commissioning ceremony. Earning their gold bars and first salutes, seven cadets advanced to the entry-level officer rank of second lieutenant.
“These are some of the best young people our country has to offer,” said Lieutenant Colonel Timothy Downing, a UCSB military science professor, in his opening remarks. These officers, he added, would take on “the lasting obligation to cherish and protect the country.”
Your commissioning is not an end, but a beginning. You are the future warrior leaders of the U.S. Army…