“I felt like I was on top of the world!” declared sophomore RJ Morgan in the days following his civil air patrol promotion. The ceremony was in the civil air patrol room, and RJ tells us that “…everyone was paying attention. When I got called up, I shook hands with the sergeant, got a certificate, and then took a picture. It was really exciting.” He had worked really hard to get promoted, and was happy it was finally happening. Watching his fellow cadets get promoted along with him, RJ was “…happy for them, because they all did what they needed to do to get promoted and so did I, so we were all happy at the end of the day.”

In the civil air patrol class, “…everyone starts out as a cadet basic, and then you have to do assignments and homework in a bunch of different categories to get promoted. There’s aerospace, there’s drill, there’s leadership and a lot of other areas you have to excel in if you want to be promoted and they’re all a grade for the class. The promotion makes us look better and gives us more leadership opportunities. For example, some people in the class create activities and homework assignments that cadets who are lower than them have to do.” RJ and his class “…learn how to become good leaders. We fly and learn how planes work. We prepare for the military and we march. We also have to watch younger cadets if we’re an older person in the program.” The cadets also volunteer for their community. RJ said, “Sometimes the school will ask us to volunteer for things. Last month, we got to help with parking for the college fair. And there’s other things we help out with. When the hurricane hit, the school didn’t ask us to, but we helped put up shutters.”

RJ revealed that, “It’s my goal is to become a pilot and fly, because that’s always been my dream, and that’s why I’m in this program.”  He plans to finish the program and succeed from there. RJ was on top of the world during his promotion and he dreams to soon be on top of the world in a plane, flying for his country.