Coleton Tabor was one of sixteen National Guardsmen that graduated from the Tennessee Army National Guard’s 10-monthlong Officer Candidate School, led by the 117th Regional Training Institute, during a special ceremony held at Smyrna’s Volunteer Training Center, April 19. Many of these graduates will now join the Tennessee National Guard as platoon leaders and junior staff officers as they earn their commissions as U.S. Army 2nd Lieutenants.

Following the presentation of awards and the Oath of Office, each candidate’s family were given the honor to pin on their graduate’s new 2nd Lieutenant rank. They then conducted the time-honored tradition of the first salute ceremony, where the newly commissioned officer receives their first salute from an enlisted soldier, and in return, the officer presents them with a silver dollar. It is a tradition that represents the symbolic relationship between officers and enlisted service members, and the deep sense of gratitude they have for the noncommissioned officers who pass on their knowledge and training.

The graduating candidates of OCS Class 69 are part of a long lineage of more than 2,100 officers who commissioned through Tennessee’s OCS program, including 19 who became Generals and six who became Tennessee’s Adjutant General, the highest-ranking military position in Tennessee.

After commissioning, each officer is assigned to various units in the Tennessee National Guard and will attend courses needed to be qualified in the branch they were selected to serve.