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Dateline: 5/4/2007

GONZAGA UNIVERSITY NEWS RELEASE
Dale Goodwin, Director
Peter Tormey, Associate Director

President Bush to Commission Two GU ROTC Cadets

The graduation spotlight shines on the Gonzaga University ROTC program, as two Bulldogs will be commissioned as lieutenants by President Bush, and a program alumnus who is now an Army commander will be honored by his alma mater Gonzaga.

The Bulldog Battalion, Gonzaga’s Army ROTC unit that includes students from Gonzaga, Whitworth College and the Intercollegiate College of Nursing, will send 23 lieutenants into the Army Officer Corps at the commissioning ceremony that begins at 4:30 p.m., Friday, May 11, in the Globe Room of Gonzaga’s Cataldo Hall.

Peter Gilroy Sarah Starr
Following the GU commissioning, Gonzaga senior Cadets (at left) Peter Gilroy and Sarah Starr will depart for the nation’s capital to be commissioned by President Bush on Tuesday, May 15. Lt. Col. Allen Patty called the commissioning by President Bush “an enormous honor because they are two of 22 selected from approximately 5,000 Army ROTC cadets from around the nation.”

Maj. Gen. Jason K. Kamiya, a 1976 Gonzaga alumnus and commander of Combined Joint Task Force 76 in Afghanistan from February 2005 to February 2006, will be the guest speaker for the GU ROTC commissioning. Kamiya, a distinguished military graduate, also will receive an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Gonzaga at its undergraduate commencement ceremony at 10 a.m., Sunday, May 13 in the Spokane Veterans Memorial Arena. Kamiya, now stationed at Joint Forces Command in Norfolk, Va., will be honored for his more than three decades of service to this country and the safety and freedom of its people.

“This is a prestigious award and General Kamiya is most deserving,” said (Ret.) Lt. Col. Alan Westfield, assistant professor of military science at GU. “We all can be proud of his achievements as well as the fact that Gonzaga will honor one of our own.”

The 23 Bulldog Battalion cadets being commissioned this year include 20 GU graduates, and three from Whitworth; two of the GU graduates attended the Intercollegiate College of Nursing.

For more information, contact Jeanne Hayes at (509) 323-6512 or via e-mail or Lt. Col. Westfield at (509) 323-6517.