A Thai cadet has been named a student squadron commander in South Korea’s Air Force Academy, becoming the first foreign cadet to assume such a high leadership role in the country’s military academies, officials said Sunday.

Thawatchai Thongsangkaew, 28, will command about 320 cadets until January as head of the academy’s second squadron. Squadron commandership is the second highest position cadets can take in the academy, after that of wing commander.

Thawatchai, who has completed seven semesters and is expected to graduate in a few months, is one of 10 foreign cadets currently training at the academy. He entered the academy in 2008 after finishing a first year at Thailand’s air force academy.

“Cadet Thawatchai has been awarded a best student prize three times so far, which is given to the top three students, and his overall performance has been within the top 4 percent,” an Air Force official said. “He is also fluent in Korean and has no problem commanding cadets.”

Thawatchai was quoted as saying he came to Korea to study under the education system of the Korean Air Force Academy and that it was hard to study in Korean, but his colleagues have been a big help.

He also said he hopes to be commissioned as an air force officer in his homeland and become an pilot. The cadet was also quoted as saying he hopes to return to Korea some day as a military attache at Thailand’s Embassy in Seoul and to work to promote military friendship between the two countries. (Yonhap News)