To the editor:

Where was our local media on Monday, May 22, when the 29 KU ROTC, Army, Air Force, Navy and Marine cadets said their oaths of office, commissioning them into our Armed Forces? Not one word could be found anywhere in the Journal-World about these brave young officers, now embarking on their chosen careers, who volunteered and “solemnly swore to defend our Constitution against all enemies, both foreign and domestic”!

A standing-room-only crowd in the KU ballroom witnessed their “unison” oath, ending in “So help me God.” But not a sign of one local media reporter present to record or publicize this newsworthy event. Apparently more interested in “where our bypass should or should not go”; or perhaps “the opinions or letters of the many so-called, self-proclaimed road building experts who do not know doodly squat about where it would best serve our congested city’s traffic. That decision should be left to our state and federal highway experts.

Twenty-nine senior citizens, many of them retired service members, were invited to administer the individual oaths at the separate service branch ceremonies, which preceded the main ballroom event. The newly appointed Air Force second lieutenant that I was humbly honored to read that oath to is aspiring to become a navigator in our USAF. May God bless her!

An apology or a belated write-up might be appropriate but at the least, I would certainly hope that someone in the Journal-World remembers that this event occurs annually; and at this approximate same time each year at the Armed Services Commissioning Ceremony in the KU ballroom.

Lt. Col. Dick Hewitt, USAF (Ret.),

Lawrence