The Atlanta Metropolitan Council, Navy League of the United States, held its’ 15th annual Youth Awards Banquet on May 8 and named Cadet Seaman Wesley Satterwhite, NSCC from 2745th Seabee Battalion – a student at Fayette County High School, the councils’ eighth annual Sea Cadet award. The council also named Cadet LCDR Marleyna Greene, Stephenson High School, the 2008 winner of the JROTC Award. Greene was selected from 45 nominees.

Greene and Satterwhite each received a $500 U.S Savings Bond. Additionally Greene was awarded an NROTC scholarship to attend Spelman College by the Naval Service Training Command in February 2008.

The JROTC awards were presented by council president Chuck McCleskey. The Sea Cadet William T Schwendler Award for Excellence was presented by McCleskey and William T. Schwendler Jr. Vice president of youth services Frank Campbell coordinated the dinner and was master of ceremonies.

Satterwhite is the son of John and Ellen Satterwhite of Fayetteville, Ga.

The Metro Youth Awards program is one of many projects the Atlanta Council conducts for area young people and active and reserve duty personnel. This area boasts 45 high schools with Navy and Marine Corps JROTC units, and eight Sea Cadet units, all of which were eligible for the awards. The council has a separate program for the two NROTC units at Georgia Tech and Morehouse College. It also gives quarterly and annual awards to sailors at the Naval Air Station Atlanta, the Naval Operational Support Center (NOSC) Atlanta, the Navy Supply School in Athens, Georgia, the Navy Recruiting District of Atlanta, aboard the USS Jimmy Carter homeported in Bremerton, Washington and the USS Georgia.

The Criteria for the Outstanding Metro JROTC Award is the cadet will have served at least two years in the Navy/Marine Corps JROTC; must exhibit ethical and reliable leadership skills; must have served in a management position in his/her JRO TC unit; should demonstrate a desire for advancement of both him/herself and his/her unit, and will have been nominated by the unit Senior Naval Science Instructor or Senior Marine Corps Science Instructor.

The Navy League Metro Sea Cadet of the Year, who receives the William T. Schwendler Award for Excellence, is expected to be in at least his/her second full year of service in the Naval Sea Cadet Corps, demonstrate the desire for personal excellence through taking advantage of education and training opportunities within and outside the Sea Cadet program, exemplify the reliability of character and quality of work essential to making the cadet a valuable member of any team, exhibit the courage and integrity required to be level-headed and fair in all dealings with other people; and demonstrate leadership skills in helping to guide and develop fellow cadets so that all have an opportunity to do their personal best and advance their unit. The award is in honor of William T. Schwendler, 1904-1978, an early aviation designer who made major contributions to the aerospace industry. Leroy R. Grumman, assisted by Schwendler and four other men, founded Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation in 1929. Schwendler had begun his aeronautics career as a member of the first class in aeronautical and mechanical engineering at New York University, graduating in 1924 at age 20.

login to post comments