The New York City Army Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) commissioned 15 cadets as second lieutenants at a swearing-in ceremony on May 18 at Fordham University Church on the Rose Hill campus.
A number of the newly commissioned officers will go on active duty at military posts throughout the country and in Germany, and others will serve in the Army Reserve and National Guard. Fordham is the host institution for the New York City Army ROTC, which includes many area colleges and universities.
The ceremony featured speeches by Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of Fordham, and Brig. Gen. Guy Sands-Pingot, commander of the 353rd Civil Affairs Command in Staten Island.
“You have spent long hours in drills,” Father McShane told the cadets. “You have spent your summers not on the Jersey shore, but in camps where you have rubbed shoulders with other young men and women for whom … service to our nation is a sacred vocation. You have wrestled with the mysteries of tactics and the art of leadership. Along the way you have learned the meaning of discipline and you have, indeed, become what you have dreamed of becoming: leaders—and great leaders at that—and role models within the University family. Therefore … on behalf of a very proud and most grateful university, I would like to thank all of you for being a leaven in our community.”
