Ten officer candidates of the Georgia Army National Guard’s Georgia Military Institute received their commissions as 2nd lieutenants during a ceremony at the Clay National Guard Center in Marietta, Ga. August 15, 2026.

“The gold bars you are about to receive are not a reward, said Lt. Col. Matthew Smith, commander of the 2nd Battalion, 122nd Regional Training Institute. “They are a down payment on what we expect you to achieve.”

As an element of the 122nd RTI, The Georgia Military Institute serves as the officer candidate school for the Georgia Army National Guard. The traditional state National Guard OCS class commits to 18 months of training during drill weekends and two summer annual training events. Of the ten new officers, nine completed the traditional National Guard OCS while one completed an accelerated OCS program over the course of eight weeks.

During the commissioning ceremony, the new second lieutenants were administered the oath of office and pinned with their new rank. Following tradition, the new officers received their first salute from an individual of their choosing.

Second Lieutenant Mark Sunderland was OCS Class 65’s distinguished honor graduate and received the Erickson Trophy and Hathaway Academic Award. Sunderland will complete infantry branch training at Fort Benning and serve in the 3rd Battalion, 121st Infantry Battalion. Second Lieutenant Jackson Agin, who will also serve as an infantry officer in the 121st, received the Campbell Fitness Award.

Once accepted into the Georgia National Guard OCS program, candidates are subjected to a series of academic challenges and arduous tasks to evaluate them both physically and mentally. They train in the academics of leadership in a classroom setting and take to the field to learn small unit tactics and unit leadership. The training is divided into three phases.

“Phase 1 of OCS consists of an intense 15-day annual training period of instruction under high stress conditions at Fort McClellan in Anniston, Ala.,” said Sergeant 1st Class Joseph Noble, a platoon training for Class 65. At McCellan, “candidates are immersed in a 24/7 training environment,” said Noble. This initial phase is designed to instill critical thinking, judgment, and to prompt the prospective officers to develop the skills needed to make life or death decisions in an imperfect information environment.

During Phase II, the training shifts to a 13-month instruction covering classroom and tactical instruction delivered over successive drill weekends. A capstone experience of Phase II is a staff ride where the officers are presented with real-world leadership problems faced by former GMI graduates and military leaders on a Civil War Battlefield.

For the final phase of training, candidates return to Fort McClellan for an intensive field training exercise focusing on tactical operations with instructors mentoring candidates and polishing their small-unit leadership skills.

The Georgia Military Institute was founded in 1851 in Marietta and served as the premier state military academy until 1864 when the campus was burned by advancing federal troops. Resurrected in 1891, GMI resumed operations in Edgewood but was compelled to close in 1898 following financial hardships prompted by the panic of 1893. Nevertheless, the second iteration of GMI provided the Georgia National Guard with a corps of officers that would go on to serve in the Spanish American War, and both World Wars.

The current Georgia Military Institute graduated its first class in 1962. With the graduation of Class 65, the modern GMI has commissioned 1,257 officers into the Georgia Army National Guard. These officers have mobilized in response to the Berlin Crisis of 1961, and served in Vietnam, Bosnia, The Gulf War and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Graduates of GMI have served at the highest level of leadership in the Department of Defense to include the four-star level.