COLLEGE STATION, TX — Friday afternoon, United States chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Mark Milley, commissioned 180 members of the Aggie Corps of Cadets into military officer positions.
The ceremony inside Texas A&M’s indoor track and field stadium featured young men and women entering all five branches of the military, including the United States Space Force.
“ You are not going to have a job,” Milley said in his address to the new graduates. “You are joining a profession. What you’re doing is a calling. It’s very much a calling to the colors, for serving something much bigger than yourself.”
Milley spoke at length of the historic accolades of Aggies in the United States military, reflecting on the legacy to which the new officers might aspire.
"Every single day, it’s not lost on me who an Aggie is in that Pentagon,” Milley stated. “... Every time I go to a unit anywhere, no matter where you are, you always find an Aggie. And you have everything to be proud of, and the long tradition of this school.”
Graduates joined their proud loved ones outside Kyle Field following the ceremony. Air Force 2nd Lieutenant Jamie Cuoco graduated in the early morning prior to her commissioning and was joined by her family and her fellow Air Force officer spouse.
"This was the best ceremony, because it encapsulated everything that I experienced,” Cuoco said. I was just thinking about when I was a freshman, crying in my dorm, and thinking about how much I wanted to quit. But everything came together, and all the struggles and sacrifices - everything was worth it in the end.”
These young men and women took the oaths of office, pledging their very lives to protect the American people. They will now go on to represent Texas A&M in their leadership.
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