Young cadet marches into history

A Defence Force trainee has set history by becoming the first military cadet officer to beat the odds and graduate as a military doctor and commissioned an officer.
She is Lieutenant Lorrain Mai, 32, from Agutamanda Village, in Wapenammanda, Enga.
Mai joined the Defence Force on Oct 8, 2012, as a cadet officer and was selected to study medicine at the Second Military University in Shanghai City, China.
She was selected under a bilateral agreement between the Defence Force and the People’s Liberation Army to study medicine and surgery.
She began her studies in July 2012 and graduated in July last year.
Last Friday, in a quiet ceremony, she was commissioned a military officer with the rank of lieutenant by Defence Force chief Major-General Gilbert Toropo.
Toropo said history was being made because it was the first time that a trained military officer had graduated as a medical doctor while in the army.
“I am proud to say that today it is very hard and expensive to recruit military doctors who are working outside to come and work in the army,” Toropo said.
“Lieutenant Mai’s achievement is a great bonus to the force as she is already a soldier trained to become a doctor. “She will take pride with her job.”
Mai is the first of the four PNGDF cadets who are currently studying at Second Military Medical University in Shanghai.
The second cadet will graduate in July this year.