Commissioning ceremony

In my Cross Cultural Communication class we have to dedicate 10 hours of service to experiencing a different culture. For my hours I am interacting with soldiers and listening to their stories, so that i can have a better understanding of the "Army way of life." We have to keep a journal of our experiences, and I thought that i would post one of my journal entries on here.

On Monday, I had the privilege of witnessing a Commissioning Ceremony, where an ROTC Cadet gets commissioned as 2nd Lt. in the United States Army. Here is my journal entry and my civilian account of the ceremony...

Today, September 27, 2010, I attended John Matlick’s commissioning ceremony with my service learning partner CPT Robert Prah.  Since he also received his commission as a 2^nd Lieutenant at Cal U, he always tries to make it at the ceremonies. The first thing done was a color guard, which is where soldiers regardless of rank, carry the American flag, PA state flag and two rifles. I noticed that they all walked in step and moved as one unit, almost flawlessly. They posted the colors and rendered a hand salute to the American flag. During the ceremony COL Ulysses Winn was the guest speaker and read the oath of office for John Matlick.  During this all military service members wore the class A’s and must stand at the position of attention as a sign of respect to the new officer. His parents then pinned his Gold Bars distinguishing him a 2LT. MSG Wilkinson then rendered Matlick his first salute, it is a tradition for the first salute to be by the enlisted man that gave you the most training to be an office. In military culture the Lieutenant gives the first enlisted man a coin exemplifying the knowledge he gave throughout training. LTC Bonomo the Assistant Three Rivers Battalion Commander then gave his remarks on the endeavors that Matlick had completed to achieve his rank. Before the end of the ceremony, the color guard then retrieves the Colors while the Military service members announce the Army Song. “First to fight, for the right, and to build the nations might, and the Army goes rolling along, Proud of all we have done, fighting til the battles won, and the Army goes rolling along, Then its high high hey, the Army’s on its way, count off the cadence loud and strong, For ever we go, you will always know that the Army goes rolling along.” This concludes the ceremony.