The Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC) programs at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), commissioned five midshipmen as officers in the U.S. Navy and one cadet in the U.S. Army during a ceremony in the Kresge Auditorium on campus here, June 5.

Rear Adm. Paul Sohl, commander, Fleet Readiness Centers, assistant commander for Logistics and Industrial Operations, Naval Air Systems Command, recognized the six Navy ROTC midshipmen and one U.S. Army cadet as well as recent graduates of MIT. The event included U.S Navy Northeast Band who played to honor the new officers of the Army and Navy as well as the admiral.

The new ensigns will go off to serve around the globe in a variety of military occupational specialties in the aviation, surface warfare and submarine warfare communities. The Army gained a new officer into their cyber command.

The U.S. Navy welcomed Ensigns Joanna K. Chen, Connor A. Humber, Stephen D. Johnson, Erik O. Klatt and Bridget E. McCoy. Cadet Andrea R. Dubin received her commission as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army. The sense of family tradition was strong as four of the five ensigns were given their oaths by family members -- sisters, brothers and fathers.

Rear Adm. Sohl, a 1985 graduate of MIT with a Bachelor of Science in Aeronautical Engineering, who went on to study for a Master of Science in Aeronautical and Astronautically Engineering from Stanford University, said he knew well the trials and tribulations the six midshipmen had endured. After designating as a naval aviator in 1988, he went on to command Naval Test Wing Pacific located in Point Mugu, California, Fleet Readiness Center Southeast, located in Jacksonville, Florida, and the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School in Patuxent River, Maryland.

"You leave here with the world in the palm of your hand, yet you are choosing a different path. You are choosing to open your hands to the world," Sohl said.

He told the six midshipmen and one cadet being commissioned to "Know your job, know your people, know yourself and lead boldly!"

Sohl went on to tell the officers to get in the arena, aptly alluding to Theodore Roosevelt's 'Man in the Arena' speech and thanked each of the new officer's families and friends.

Ensign Johnson said, "I really appreciated Rear Adm. Sohl's comments and his call to us new officers. It was a great culmination to four years of hard work, and I am deeply grateful to the (staff) lieutenants, the unit staff and all the midshipmen I've had the pleasure of working with."

The newly-minted officers happily posed for pictures with each other and with their instructors following the ceremony. All of them said they appreciated the mentorship and guidance they received the last four years.

"The last 4 years have not been easy for them, yet they are well prepared mentally, physically and emotionally for the challenges ahead," said Surface Warfare Officer Instructor Lt. David Lueck.

The Boston NROTC consortium is comprised of midshipmen from Boston University, Boston College, Northeastern University, Tufts University, Harvard University, and MIT.

The NROTC program is overseen by Rear Adm. Rich Brown, commander of Naval Service Training Command (NSTC) at Naval Station Great Lakes, Ill. 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/.

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/.