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:

G-Wings Ceremony Photos