Wayne Walden
Tuesday, April 26, 2011 9:06 am

Paducah Tilghman High School’s Navy Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps (NJROTC) unit has again been named as a Distinguished Unit for the 2010-2011 school year.
Being named a Distinguished Unit is the program’s fourth consecutive national award and the fifth since the NJROTC program started at PTHS in 2001.  The Paducah Tilghman NJROTC unit was eligible to start competing for the honor in 2004.

“Winning the Distinguished Unit award is a great payback for our cadets who have worked hard all year,” said retired Navy Lieutenant Commander Donald Taylor, Senior Naval Science Instructor.  “We’re in our tenth year at Paducah Tilghman and we began our eligibility for the award after our third year.  PTHS is the only school in Kentucky to receive the award,” he added.

“The Distinguished Unit award marks the Paducah Tilghman program as one of the top NJROTC units in the country,” according to Senior Chief Petty Officer Don  Myers, the unit’s Naval Science Instructor.  “We’re the only school in far Western Kentucky with a Junior ROTC program,” he said.  Myers is in his third year of teaching in the NJROTC program.

Paducah Tilghman’s NJROTC Unit received the Distinguished Unit award in the NJROTC “Area Nine,” the Navy organization to which the school’s program is assigned.  Area Nine encompasses schools in states from Virginia to Arizona.