[042] Aug. 7 MTSU ROTC Ceremony Commissions 4 Into U.S. Army

Release date: Aug. 7, 2009

News & Public Affairs contact: Randy Weiler, 615-898-2919 / 615-785-1196 (cell)
Military science contact: Lt. Col. TK Kast, 615-898-2470


Aug. 7 MTSU ROTC Ceremony Commissions 4 Into U.S. Army


(MURFREESBORO) — A day before receiving their undergraduate degrees, four MTSU students – three of whom are from Tennessee – were commissioned into the United States Army. The official swearing-in and pinning ceremonies were held Aug. 7 in the Keathley University Center Theater.
The students include newly commissioned 2nd Lts. Ashley Deeds of Clarksville, Jason Bass of East Ridge, Samuel Lopez of McMinnville and Marc Ballard of Stafford, Va.
Family, friends, classmates, faculty, administrators and others attended the ceremony, which was led for the first time by Lt. Col. Tharrel “TK” Kast, the new professor of military science at the university.
Friday’s four honorees graduate Saturday, Aug. 8, during commencement ceremonies in Murphy Center.
Deeds will graduate with a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from MTSU’s Jennings A. Jones College of Business. She will be assigned to the Basic Officer Leadership Course II at Fort Still, Okla., and BOLC III at Fort Leonard Wood, Mo. Her first duty assignment will be at Fort Hood in Texas. She was commissioned on her birthday.
Ballard will graduate with a Bachelor of Science degree in political science from the College of Liberal Arts. He will be assigned to the BOLC II and BOLC III at Fort Still, where his first duty assignment will be made known.
Bass will graduate with a B.S. degree in area studies from the College of Continuing Education and Distance Learning. He has not received a branch assignment.
Lopez will graduate with a B.S. degree in the College of Education and Behavioral Science’s criminal justice program. He has not received a branch assignment.

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