McDowell PA-791st receives prestigious awards

McDowell High School’s AFJROTC Program hosted its annual Superintendent’s Review, which is an annual ceremony held to recognize cadets’ accomplishments over the school year. Cadets were given awards for their accomplishments by grade level, some performed demonstrations of their exhibitions and rifles routines, and scholarships were announced. Awards were given in the form of ribbons, certificates, plaques and medals by a variety of veterans, active military members, school administration and leaders of local groups that support the AFJROTC program at McDowell.

At the end of the ceremony, the program’s instructors announced that they had received two important notices from Headquarters AFJROTC. The first was that the McDowell PA-791st was awarded the Distinguished Unit with Merit Award, which is the highest possible award a unit can receive. To earn this recognition, a unit must receive an “Exceeds Standards” rating during its formal headquarters inspection and meet extensive benchmarks in leadership, academics, administration, community service, cadet involvement and overall program excellence.

The second notice was that the unit also earned the Silver Star Community Service with Excellence Award. This is an elite unit-wide distinction in AFJROTC that is based on measurable performance across the entire corps. This distinction recognizes only the top 5% of AFJROTC units worldwide and the McDowell PA-791st was the only unit in the State of Pennsylvania to receive this distinction. There are 814 AFJROTC units globally, and only 41 of them earned the Silver Star Community Service with Excellence Award this year. The award is for exceptional verified community service participation and impact. Mcdowell’s cadets averaged 25 community service hours per cadet this school year.