During the 2016-17 Commencement at Gannon University, six ROTC seniors were commissioned in the United States Army as Distinguished Military Graduates.
Distinguished Military Graduates are in the top 20 percent of cadets nationwide. This title is based on college athletic participation, performance during college ROTC training, strong performance on the Army Physical Fitness Test and grade point average.
Damiano Cicchinelli, Avery Craig, Ryan Davis, Reyna Lynn Palanca, Ashley Sarlo and Kyle Volkman were all commissioned as Second Lieutenants.
These Cadets were also members of The “Pride of PA” Army Senior Battalion.
Each of the new Second Lieutenants will go on to complete assignments. Second Lieutenant Cicchinelli will be joining a combat engineers unit in Florida as a member of the U.S. Army Reserve.
Craig will be in Ft. Drum, New York as a field artillery officer. Palanca and Sarlo will join the Army Nurse Corps, while Volkman will be attending Wake Forest University for law school and join the Judge Advocates General Corps.
Davis is waiting for his assignment as an infantry officer.
The “Pride of PA” Battalion consists of ROTC units at Gannon University, Mercyhurst University and Penn State Behrend.
HARLEE BOEHM
