OXFORD – The late Commander Michael C. Masley was an educator, mentor, and friend to the many cadets belonging to the Naval Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps (NJROTC) unit at Oxford High School. He built a tradition and culture within the unit that established a high standard of education, discipline, and accountability within the program that still thrives today. 

Elissa Rafferty-Comeau was a member of the first graduating class in 2000 to complete the four-year NJROTC program under the tutelage of Comdr. Masley. She said the commander not only had a tremendous positive influence on her life, but he also indirectly impacted her daughter Haylee’s life as well.

“I’m so glad she got to meet him one time before he passed away (in Nov. 2017) and I’m so thankful for that,” said Rafferty-Comeau, whose daughter recently graduated from Oxford High School and completed the same NJROTC program established by Comdr. Masley. Haylee now attends the Citadel, a military college in South Carolina. “I had no idea at that time of the impact that he would have on her, but he did 100 percent. I believe in my heart that because I was in the unit, I would not have my stories without him and she knew about my stories. That program is there because of him. She experienced the program because of him. He had so much impact on so many people and he still does.”

The high school will recognize Comdr. Masley’s more than two decades of devotion to the students of Oxford High by dedicating the school’s athletic field scoreboard in his honor on Friday prior to the football game.

“He just really established a high standard for the area with his expectations of his students and the way he went about it,” said David Youngsman, the current senior officer of the high school’s NJROTC unit. Youngsman worked under Comdr. Masley from 2010 to 2017 as the senior enlisted man. “He put a lot of time in the program and got involved with all kinds of events for his cadets.”

After he retired as a naval officer in 1995, Comdr. Masley was soon hired as Oxford High School’s first Senior Naval Science Instructor. He then started the NJROTC as a grass roots program. As director of the Oxford NJROTC, he challenged each student to reach their greatest potential and he set high standards for students and the unit. “He did hold up that standard to them and the students really responded to it,” Youngsman said. 

Rafferty-Comeau said she appreciated the life-lessons the program has taught her. “He pushed us, but he supported us,” she said. “He never was overbearing, but he had a way about him that you never wanted to disappoint the man.”

Comdr. Masley’s standard of excellence paid off as his students earned 25 national awards for the program during the 22 years under his direction. For example, his unit through the years received national, regional, and state awards for programming excellence from academics, color guard, drill teams, marksmanship, and volunteerism. One of the major award highlights included the White House National Daily Point of Light on Sept. 28, 1999. His program also became the first NJROTC unit of any service branch to receive this distinction and they received 16 Distinguished Unit awards in a 17 year-span.

 Comdr. Masley provided his students with the best educational and life-affirming experiences possible including opportunities like involving his cadets in Leadership Academy, getting them competing in various color guard events, sailing in Newport, RI, organizing the annual Military Ball, and instilling in his students the importance of community service. “Comdr. Masley was there to oversee and make sure they’re doing what they are supposed to and having fun,” Youngsman said. “What we do now and what Comdr. Masley always tried to find interesting things outside the norm and I think he did a pretty good job doing that.”

“He tried to make everything fun for us,” Rafferty-Comeau said. “We’d drive on these long bus trips down to Rhode Island and have these drill competitions. It was always his thing that we would always stop at a Chinese buffet on the way home for dinner. That was his way of saying good job guys. It was just a little tradition for our generation. He didn’t take less than our best ever. We had to give it our best and he rewarded us.”

Comdr. Masley created more than just a disciplined program. He created a family atmosphere for his students. Youngsman said you cannot measure the impact of Comdr. Masley had on the lives of his young cadets. “He was more of a father-figure to the kids,” he said. “They would really attach themselves to him … When I first got here to teach, when I would head out at the end of the day, especially during the holidays when past students would come back home to visit their families, I’d be getting ready to leave and there would be kids, past students, past cadets, in his room every afternoon visiting him for long periods of time. He had just become a tremendous asset to the community of Oxford and he didn’t even live here. He lived in Connecticut. But this is where he really made his mark.”

Rafferty-Comeau said he didn’t do it for money or to win competitions, instead he transformed the NJROTC into a family because he cared about all Oxford High School students.

The high-standard established by Comdr. Masley all those years ago for the NJROTC program continues today. “I’ve tried to carry that tradition on,” said Youngsman. “It’s just carrying on that torch. We try to honor the traditions and standards that he set forth. He put in a lot of hours, more than any other person in the building, and that’s who he was. It was his life … That’s what Commander Masely was all about. We just want that to continue.”