On the 20th, 558 new officers were commissioned at the first joint commissioning ceremony for the Army, Navy and Air Force academies held at Gyeryongdae in South Chungcheong Province.
This is the first time a commissioning ceremony has been held by integrating only the Army, Navy and Air Force academies. The Lee Jae-myung administration has presented the push for an integrated Army-Navy-Air Force academy as a state task. Back in 2017, the three service academies, the Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC), and the Korea Armed Forces Nursing Academy held a joint commissioning ceremony.
Minister of National Defense Ahn Gyu-baek said, "Today's joint commissioning ceremony is a meaningful occasion being held again after nine years," adding, "Even if the colors of your uniforms are different, your mission is only one: 'to defend the Republic of Korea.'" Ahn went on, "In the tempering you underwent to become officers, you experienced the national crisis of an insurrection," and added, "Yours is the generation that has engraved the values of democracy and the Constitution."
This joint commissioning ceremony was held under the slogan, "At the forefront of national defense, united into the future!" About 2,000 people, including the new officers and their families and relatives, attended to celebrate the commissioning. The event proceeded in the following order: a performance by the Armed Forces joint honor guard, presentation of commissioning orders, pinning of rank insignia, the commissioning oath, and a recitation of the new officers' "pledge to defend the nation." After the ceremony, a joint celebratory flight followed to mark the birth of the new officers.
The top honors, awarded to those with outstanding commissioning records, went to Second Lt. Choe Dae-seong (Korea Military Academy), Second Lt. Park Jong-won (Korea Naval Academy), and Second Lt. Kim Seok-hyeon (Korea Air Force Academy). Among the new officers were also individuals from families with diverse military service backgrounds, descendants of independence patriots, and people with distinctive resumes. Army Second Lt. Lee Hyo-won's great-great-grandfather is independence patriot Lee Seong-sun; the father is Lee Gang-hee, who retired as an Army colonel; and the older brother is Army Capt. Lee Hyo-seok.
Air Force Second Lt. Jeong Yeon-je majored in space engineering and succeeded in launching a model rocket with a hybrid engine. Jeong also won the Minister of National Defense Award at last year's 6th Militech Challenge for a method to diagnose faults in electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft and reshape their control.
The newly commissioned officers will complete initial officer training courses by service and specialty and then be assigned to front-line units of the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps to carry out their missions.