Texas A&M University commissions 165 Corps of Cadets into the military

COLLEGE STATION, Texas (KBTX) – On Friday, Texas A&M continued its graduation ceremony however at 2 p.m. they held a special commencement ceremony for A&M students who were graduating and heading off to serve their country.

There were a total of 165 cadets commissioned into the armed forces. The newly commissioned officers will enter all sorts of branches from the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, and Space Force as Second Lieutenants and ensigns. This is the Corps of Cadets’ largest class of military officers commissioned in nearly 40 years.

One of the graduates, Connor Close will be stationed on the DDG 65 U.S.S. Benfold in Osaka, Japan. He said it was an amazing experience to be able to celebrate with his colleagues after four hard years of training and hard work.

“It’s just a beautiful experience, and to be able to shake hands with everyone who helped you along the way and be able to share it with the people, its a lot of comradery and sharing the moment,” Close said. “I wanted to pursue a career in the military to serve my community and hopefully after my time is done bring that back to my own community and serve it as a civilian.”

Cameron Paladino will enter the Marine Corps as a Second Lieutenant and said it’s an honor to join the line of Aggies who have or are giving their life to serve the military.

“I think very honored to be a part of a generation that still wants to serve this country and the fact that it’s just growing and hopefully next year it’s bigger. We can just continue to have college students who want to serve their country,” Paladino said.

Another graduate Josh Palinkas said he will be attending a nuclear power school in South Carolina to train as a submarine warfare officer. For him, the day was filled with excitement and apprehension.

“I’ve spent a lot of time working towards the goal of earning this uniform and being an officer in the military, but also apprehension, because now that I enter the operating military, there is a lot more responsibility placed on me as an office than there was as a college student here,” Palinkas said. “We’re all stoked, very happy to be reaching that milestone and be doing our thing in the military.”

The University said it has normally commissioned more officers into the military than any other university in the nation except for military academies.