The former Forest Glen High School surely produced some fine graduates during its time. There are teachers, school administrators, business and civic leaders, pastors and politicians who can all remember the days they spent as Forest Glen Rangers.

But one of those Rangers, in particular, deserves special recognition for the role he recently took on with the Virginia National Guard.

Cheyenne M. Johnson has been named the new command sergeant major for the Virginia Guard. The position puts him in charge of all day-to-day operations of all the state’s National Guard units.

Command Sgt. Maj. Johnson has been a member of the National Guard for 36 years, after having initially joined for the tuition benefits. He never figured on making the Guard a permanent part of his life. But once he’d served long enough to have earned his education benefits, he was hooked on the camaraderie, he said recently, and he liked the opportunity to be able to serve his country.

The 1976 Forest Glen High School graduate has done two active-duty tours, once for security duty at Army facilities in Northern Virginia and the other in 2009, which took him to Iraq. His full-time jobs have involved working in shipyards, first in Newport News, then at Norfolk Naval and now back in Newport News.

He has served in every major command in the Virginia Guard. His new assignment means a three-year active-duty tour.

Congratulations to Command Sgt. Maj. Johnson for his promotion. We know he will continue to make his family and friends back here in Suffolk very proud.