G-Wings (Soaring) Ceremony
The purpose of the event was to recognize cadet soaring instructors and cadet award winners. A buffet-style dinner was served to cadets and other guests. The special guest speaker was Col. (Ret) Leonard "Lucky" Ekman, Class of 1963.
Col. Ekman gave a speech about his service in Vietnam. He advised cadets to take their roles as soaring instructors very seriously. After his speech, groups of cadets approached Col. Ekman with questions. Col. Ekman stayed to chat with cadets and offered them further advice.
After Col. Ekman's speech, the award ceremony began. Listed below is the list of award winners:
Curtis Lott Award
C1C John Evans
Webster-Stephenson Award
C2C Andrew Dever
Peter Sohm Award:
C2C Patrick Koenig
Lt Col Riddlebarger Award
C1C Maria Norman
"G" is for Guts Award
C1C Garrett Dean
AM-461 Flight Commander Award
C1C Yassim Harouna
Lt Commander James Brice Johnson Award
C1C Gabriel Salinger
Col Walter D. "Wally" Miller Daedalian Award
C3C Jacob Mohnacs
Hard Charger Award for M-Day
C3C Nolan Lindroth
Hard Charger Award for T-Day
C3C Andrew Ratcliff
Top Marshaller Award:
C3C Avery Simer
Spirit of the 94th Award
C3C Svetoslav Nikolav
2024 AM-461 DGs
C3C Miguel Connell
C3C Holtman Dunham
C3C Gretchen Knox
C3C Jacob Mohnacs
C3C Kelly Murphy z
C3C Kevin Sisk
During the ceremony, the class of 2024 upgrade instructor pilots were presented with their glider wings, also known as "G-Wings". Each upgrade instructor pilot spends over 300 hours at the airfield completing more than 80 glider sorties, 30 hours of classroom instruction, countless general knowledge sessions, and a rigorous syllabus, all while fulfilling their academic, military, and athletic commitments as members of the Cadet Wing.
The list of cadets who received their G-Wings are listed below:
Ethan Augustin
Blake Bautch
David Calvo
Miguel Connell
Holtman Dunham
Gregory Estes
Mihiri Fernando
Kelly Graham
Daniel Hayase
Zachary Holder
Karsen Holm
Cade Isley
Gretchen Knox
Michael Laub
Samuel Mathis
Jacob Mohnacs
Kelly Murphy
Hector Natividad
Svetoslav Nikolov
Lydia Pinsenschaum
Jack Schulz
Christian Seiber
Samuel Smith
Timothy Smith
Ryan Torres
Ayushi Bansal
Sung Choi
Elizabeth Deards
Rachel Eberhardt
Maximus Fan
Matthew Flores
Jack Foster
Owen Graham
William Hochmeister
Lucas Jones
Jaden Kim
Karen Kosinski
Nolan Lindroth
Addison Lutz
James Matchette
Joseph Moore
Ezra Paul
Nina Prince
Andrew Ratcliff
Joshua Richards
Emmett Rosenzweig
Ethan Smith
Avery Taylor
Brennan Thompson
Alexis Wade
To view photos from the G-Wing ceremony, go to GALLERIES > Airmanship > Soaring. Set your sort order from Oldest to Newest. Photos begin on page 185. You can also click the link below: