06/26/2025
We have reached the end of another program year filled with activities, impact and progress on many fronts. This will be our final major program update, summarizing an intense month of activities, before we start receiving and sharing pictures from summer training events.
First, we had a very notable change in our unit, and an associated change of command ceremony on June 10, to mark ENS Rob Baughman taking over the unit CO role from YNCS Deborah Kolar. Senior Chief Kolar has led with integrity, passion, and empathy for the past 5 years, enabling the unit to grow and achieve excellence in many areas. She is deeply respected and appreciated by the unit, and under her leadership the unit was ranked #7 in the whole country this year (more on this below). While we will miss her as CO, we are thrilled that she is staying on as Operations Officer and will be spending more time directly training cadets on the drill deck.
Our new CO, ENS Baughman joined the Blue Angels three years ago. He has served as the squadron supply officer for all 3 years and has also participated as an es**rt officer for many trainings. Officer Baughman is a military aviation enthusiast and seems happiest when he is talking about the history of the US military and military aviation to our cadets. We are looking forward to seeing him deploy his vast trove of ideas and strong sense of discipline and process to help make the Blue Angels Squadron stronger and even more successful than before.
We are thrilled to report that our squadron has been recognized as one of the top NSCC units in the country, ranking 7th in the nation. It underscores the unit’s success in recruiting (it is also a recipient of the 2024 Chairman’s award for Recruiting and Retention), training, community engagement, and overall cadet development. Cadets engage deeply with the local community and play a strong role in the unit, with senior cadets leading the drills and related activities under adult oversight, providing ample opportunities to grow their confidence, leadership, and teamwork skills, while learning from their failures. We are very proud of our unit’s success and of our cadets, volunteers and supporters!
Our graduating cadets this year are going on to enlist in the military, attend military academies, and specialize in computer science, neurosciences, engineering and many other interesting fields, applying the leadership lessons and discipline learned from their time in the unit to productive careers both in the military and civil society. We wish them all the very best as they embark on these journeys!
Finally, we are happy to report our unit’s participation in a special-needs youth focused event at the VFW on June 10, and in the Wreaths across America event on June 11 where our cadets spent the morning helping to clean and maintain the Bonney Watson cemetery. Thank you for everything you do to make our communities better. Have a wonderful summer and do send us photos from summer training!
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