LOWELL — Lowell High School’s U.S. Air Force JROTC MA-771 has a new corps commander.
In a time-honored ceremony held Jan. 25 in the Raymond Riddick Athletic Center, Cadet Col. Dana Yousef relinquished command of MA-771 while Cadet Col. Taw Taw Lay assumed command. During this brief, dignified ceremony, cadets stood in formation, at the position of attention, to witness a visual representation of this change of authority and responsibility.
Both Yousef and Lay then addressed cadets with messages of motivation and charged them to continue performing at peak levels as MA-771 prepared for a national drill competition in March.
During the ceremony, Chief Master Sgt. (Ret.) Donald Felch, Lowell’s senior aerospace science instructor, presided over the ceremony and presented Yousef the Superior Service Award in recognition of her outstanding leadership during Semester I.
Ceremonies like this one occur twice each year, once at the semester break and once in conjunction with the end-of-year awards program when senior cadet leaders in this cadet-led, cadet-run organization assume the mantle of leadership for one semester at a time.
Air Force JROTC has been a fixture at Lowell High since 1977 with even deeper roots in the Boys and Girls Regiment program founded in the early 20th century.