Lakeview High School’s Air Force JROTC held its annual awards banquet recently. Parents, school board members, and community representatives were present to honor the cadets’ accomplishments this school year. The cadet staff briefed the crowd on the Cadet Corps’ achievements during the year including the Marksmanship, Drill, and Academic competition season. They also spoke about their service to the community, revealing they had over 1,000 community service hours this year, averaging more than 50 community service hours per cadet.
Major Stacey Wiggins and Chief Master Sergeant John Thomas handed out several local and national awards to cadets during the evening ceremony.
These awards include:
Local Awards
Male Athlete of the Year: Dylan Fulton
Female Athlete of the Year: Hailey Jarnagin
Academic Award – Upperclassman: Kaylynn Walsworth
Academic Award – Underclassman: Nathaniel Garner
Cadet of the Year – Freshman: Kara Slaughter
Cadet of the Year – Sophomore: Nathaniel Garner
Cadet of the Year – Junior: Colie Killingsworth
Cadet of the Year – Senior: Dylan Fulton
National Awards
The Retired Enlisted Association Award: Sophia Kerry
The Tuskegee Airmen Incorporated Award: Madison Johnson
The American Veterans (AMVETS) Award: Kara Slaughter
The Military Order of the Purple Heart Award: Emy Sorto-Cortez
The Scottish Rite Award: Natalee Lebrun
The National Sojourners Award: Macey Jarnagin
The Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) Award: Hailey Jarnagin
The Reserve Organization of America Award: Dylan Fulton
The American Legion General Military Excellence Award: Nathaniel Garner
The American Legion Scholastic Award: Peyton Cunningham
The Daughters of the American Revolution Award: Sydney Thompson
The Air & Space Forces Award: Colie Killingsworth
The evening of celebration culminated with a Change of Command ceremony in which the current Cadet Corps Commander, Colie Killingsworth, handed over her position as commander to Natalee Lebrun who will be the new Cadet Corps Commander for next school year. Cadet Lebrun assumed command and announced her Cadet Corps Staff for next year.
Group Commander: Natalee Lebrun
Deputy Group Commander: Peyton Cunningham
Operations Squadron Commander: Hailey Jarnagin
Deputy Operations Squadron Commander: Nathaniel Garner
Support Squadron Commander: Macey Jarnagin
Deputy Support Squadron Commander: Alexia Moore
Group Superintendent: Emy Sorto-Cortez
It was a great experience for the cadets and their families and capped off a great year for Lakeview. Next year AFJROTC hopes to draw in more cadets as they build on the Drone program and form an official Drone Competition team, as well as draw more interest in other STEM areas such as the Cyber Patriot computer and network security team. The Marksmanship team is also getting an upgrade as they will be installing an electronic scoring and targeting system. This will bring Lakeview’s Marksmanship team into the top tier of competitors in the country. This will be a well-deserved upgrade after a fantastic finish to the competition season where Lakeview finished 5th out of 49 teams in a nationwide joint service competition and Dylan Fulton and Colie Killingsworth garnered “Expert” marksman and Warrick Ybarra earned his Sharpshooter badge.
Pictured: Emy Sorto-Cortez, Hailey Jarnagin, Sophia Kerry, Sydney Thompson, Macey Jarnagin, Kara Slaughter, Natalee Lebrun, Colie Killingsworth, Peyton Cunningham, Madison Johnson, Kaytlynn Walsworth, Nathaniel Garner, Dylan Fulton, and Warrick Ybarra.
