Cadet receives commission at Jaguar Battalion ceremony

Southern University Chancellor Kofi Lomotey (left), 2nd Lt. Willie Clark II, and SU Army ROTC commanding officer Lt. Col. Shirley D. Sutton, at Southern University Army ROTC summer commissioning ceremony.

Southern University’s Army Reserve Officers Training Corps (AROTC), the Jaguar Battalion, held its summer commissioning ceremony July 24 at the Agricultural Research and Extension Center.

Jillian Ross, SU AROTC human resource assistant, presided at the event where 2nd Lt. Willie Clark II was commissioned as an officer in the U.S. Army. Clark, a mathematics major, has been assigned to the Basic Office Leadership Course in Fort Sill, Oklahoma, and Transportation Officer Training Corps in Fort Eustis, Virginia.

Lt. Col. Shirley D. Sutton, commanding officer and professor of military science for the Jaguar Battalion, introduced the keynote speaker for the ceremony, Lt. Col. Diedre A. Williams, chief of the Management Support Division of the 1190th Transportation Group and a 1987 graduate of Southern.

Southern University, Baton Rouge Chancellor Kofi Lomotey made remarks.

More than 1,200 second lieutenants in various branches of the Army have received their commissioning through Southern’s Army ROTC program. Nine of the graduates have been promoted to the rank of general.