Norwich announces speaker for commissioning ceremony

For Immediate Release
April 6, 2011

Contact: Daphne Larkin
802-485-2886 or 595-3613(m)
dlarkin@norwich.edu

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NEWS RELEASE

NORTHFIELD, Vt. – Norwich University officials announced that Rear Admiral Walter E. Carter, Jr. will give the keynote address at this year’s joint commissioning ceremony, to be held on Saturday, May 14 at 2 p.m. in Shapiro Field House.

Reserve Officers’ Training Corps anticipates commissioning 120 students from all four branches of the military upon graduation from Norwich in a ceremony in which the new officers receive their lieutenant or ensign bars and their first salutes.

As the commander of US Joint Forces Command’s Joint Enabling Capabilities Command (JECC), headquartered in Suffolk, Va., Rear Admiral Carter is charged with the readiness, training and deployment of six joint enabling capabilities provided by the Joint Deployable Teams, Joint Public Affairs Support Element and the Joint Communications Support Element. Rear Admiral Carter’s next assignment will be as Commander, Carrier Strike Group Twelve homeported in Norfolk, Va.

Carter is a 1981 graduate of the US Naval academy and received his Naval Flight Officer designation in 1982. He flew F-4 Phantoms and graduated from Top Gun prior to transitioning to the F-14. Carter is the recipient of the U.S. Navy’s prestigious Vice Admiral James Bond Stockdale Leadership Award while commanding Fighter Squadron (VF) 14 as well as the U.S. Navy League’s John Paul Jones Award for Inspirational Leadership while commanding the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson (CVN 70).

Carter has accumulated over 5,750 flight hours, over 300 combat hours, and holds the navy’s active duty trap record of 1,825 carrier arrested landings on board 18 different aircraft carriers including all 11 active carriers. He has flown combat missions during Operations Iraqi Freedom, Southern Watch, Allied Force and Desert Shield/Desert Storm. His personal decorations include the Defense Superior Service Medal, Legion of Merit, Distinguished Flying Cross with Combat V, Bronze Star, Defense Meritorious Service Medal, Meritorious Service Medal (four awards), Air Medal (two awards with Combat V and five Strike/Flight), as well as numerous other commendations and awards.

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Norwich University is a diversified academic institution that educates traditional-age students and adults in a Corps of Cadets and as civilians. Norwich offers a broad selection of traditional and distance-learning programs culminating in Baccalaureate and Graduate Degrees. Norwich University was founded in 1819 by Captain Alden Partridge of the U.S. Army. Norwich University is the oldest private military college in the United States of America and the birthplace of our nation's Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC). www.norwich.edu