Prairie View Agricultural and Mechanical (A&M) University Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps (NROTC) unit commissioned six midshipmen as U.S. Navy ensigns and one U.S. Marine Corps 2nd lieutenant at a joint service ceremony on the campus here, May 16.

Prairie View A&M is the first historically black college/university to host NROTC beginning in 1968. Along with the Rice University NROTC unit, they comprise NROTC Houston Consortium.

Dr. Felecia Nave, the provost at Prairie View A&M University, opened the ceremony by providing words of encouragement to the new officers, as well as reiterating the support the university has for veterans and both Army and Navy ROTC programs on campus. Dr. Alphonso Keaton, assistant dean for the College of Arts and Sciences, presented each new officer with a signed book from retired U.S. Army Gen. Julius Wesley Becton Jr., an Army ROTC graduate and previous president of Prairie View A&M University.

The guest speaker was Brig. Gen. Norman Green, deputy commanding general of the 377th Theater Sustainment Command. He welcomed the new Army, Navy and Marine Corps officers into the armed services and encouraged them to always stay focused and motivated by keeping abreast of new information and the United States role in current events. He said to, "remain vigilant as we face today's many forms of unconventional warfare against non-state combatants" while upholding the ethical and moral standards of a United States military officer.

Ensigns Robert Cain, Emily Garcia, Davita Heavener, Latriva Johnson, and Matthew Krusen, as well as 2nd Lieutenant Edward Driscoll were recognized by Prairie View A&M's NROTC Commanding Officer Capt. Michael Carambas in front of an audience of more than 200 fellow Marines, Sailors, Soldiers, Airmen, midshipmen and family. Ensigns Cain, Heavener and Garcia will report to Naval Aviation Schools Command, Naval Air Station Pensacola, Florida, for Aviation Preflight Indoctrination. Driscoll will report to Quantico, Virginia, for the Basic School. Johnson will report to the command ship USS Blue Ridge (LCC 19) in Yokosuka, Japan, and Ensign Krusen will report to the guided-missile destroyer USS Donald Cook (DDG 75) in Rota, Spain.

Following the oath of office given by Green, the newly commissioned officers received their first salutes. Many of the new officers reflected on their time in the unit.

"These past five years have been a test of patience and perseverance, especially the last two," Krusen said. "To the midshipmen who face this test now, continue to give your all to your academics and you will have no regrets when you move on to start your career in the military."

The NROTC program is overseen by Rear Adm. Rich Brown, commander of Naval Service Training Command (NSTC) at Naval Station Great Lakes, Illinois. NROTC was established to develop midshipmen mentally, morally and physically and to imbue them with the highest ideals of duty, loyalty and Navy core values in order to commission college graduates as naval officers who possess a basic professional background, are motivated toward careers in the naval service and have a potential for future development in mind and character so as to assume the highest responsibilities of command, citizenship and government.

NSTC oversees 98 percent of initial officer and enlisted accessions training for the Navy, as well as the Navy's Citizenship Development program. NSTC includes Recruit Training Command, the NROTC at more than 160 colleges and universities, Officer Training Command Newport, and Navy Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps and Navy National Defense Cadet Corps citizenship development programs at more than 600 high schools worldwide.

For more information about NROTC, visit https://www.nrotc.navy.mil/.

To follow Prairie View A&M NROTC, visit https://twitter.com/pvnrotc or https://www.facebook.com/pages/PVAMU-NROTC/629089197113030

For more information about NSTC, visit http://www.netc.navy.mil/nstc/, the NSTC Facebook pages https://www.facebook.com/NavalServiceTraining/ or www.navy.mil/local/greatlakes/.

For more news from Naval Service Training Command, visit www.navy.mil/.