Should they choose to enlist, two Nansemond River High School juniors will get a head-start their U.S. Air Force careers, after earning the Civil Air Patrol’s coveted General Billy Mitchell Award.

Cadets 2nd Lt. Jacob Neely and D. Ford G. Haight of Virginia Wing’s Tidewater Composite Squadron were recently were promoted to their current rank after earning the award.

They received the award in front of the B-25 “Mitchell” bomber at the Military Aviation Museum in Pungo.

“They had the privilege of being presented the award from Lt. Col. Carolyn Guertin, who was the first Civil Air Patrol cadet and is a Congressional Gold Medal honoree for her service during World War II,” according to a news release from CAP National Headquarters.

Neely and Haight joined the Civil Air Patrol in September 2011. Along with the volunteering in CAP, they are enrolled in Air Force Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps and are competitive swimmers for the Nansemond River Warriors.

Furthermore, they both have achieved the rank of Life with Troop 911 of the Boy Scouts of America.

The boys said it was a long road to the General Billy Mitchell Award, but they learned a lot along the way.

They said they want to use the leadership skills they’ve learned to help other cadets achieve the award.

The Brigadier General Billy Mitchell Award, inaugurated in 1964, honors the late Billy Mitchell, aviation pioneer, advocate and staunch supporter of an independent Air Force for the nation.

To earn the award, cadets must pass a 100-question examination, testing leadership theory and aerospace topics, after completing the first eight achievements of the cadet program.

Since its inception, about 42,000 cadets have earned the honor.

“It takes at least a minimum f two years to achieve,” said Pamela Copeland, spokeswoman for the squadron.

“I don’t want to compare it with the Boy Scouts Eagle award, because it’s not quite equivalent — but it’s a major milestone.”

Mitchell Award cadets are eligible for advanced placement in the grade of Airman First Class (E-3) should they choose to enlist in the U.S. Air Force.

They are also eligible for advanced credit in the Air Force ROTC program, and may apply for a variety of scholarships and CAP special activities.

The Civil Air Patrol, the official auxiliary of the U.S. Air Force, is a nonprofit organization with 60,000 members nationwide, operating a fleet of 550 aircraft.

It performs about 85 percent of continental U.S. inland search and rescue missions as tasked by the Air Force Rescue Coordination Center.

Copeland said the CAP was on the ground team when a military jet crashed in Western Virginia earlier in the year, and when a private aircraft went down in the Great Dismal Swamp in 2013, killing four people.