The four-star admiral in charge of U.S. Pacific Fleet administered the oath of office Tuesday to an inaugural group of 19 students to enroll in the University of Hawaii’s new Navy ROTC program — the first in the state and first outside the mainland.

Adm. Sam Paparo, commander of U.S. Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor, UH President David Lassner and U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz and U.S. Rep. Ed Case of Hawaii were among those attending the ceremony. The officials “acknowledged the long road to establish the program at the campus,” the university said in a release.

Twenty-three students are enrolled in the program. Paparo administered the midshipman oath to the 19 students who were present.

UH said the program is expected to attract more students in coming years. About half of the students are from Hawaii. The university said it is the first to host a new Navy ROTC program in the nation since 2016.

In 2019 then-Navy Secretary Richard Spencer approved the creation of the new Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps program after many years of local interest.

A total of $1.1 million was congressionally secured for the program, Schatz said in a late 2019 release.

“This new ROTC program at UH will give more Hawaii students a chance at earning scholarships and gaining an education, while helping the Navy strengthen its diversity to make sure its officers better reflect the American public and our values in Hawaii,” Schatz said at the time.

The lawmaker said he reminded Spencer that senior Navy leaders in Hawaii had long spoken of the university’s potential to commission a significant number of high-quality cadets “with critical language and technical skills from among an ethnically and racially diverse student body.”

Midshipmen complete undergraduate degrees while simultaneously receiving military training. Many receive traditional four-year scholarships from the Navy, although two- and three-year scholarships and nonscholarship entry also are possible, UH said.

With completion of the program, midshipmen are commissioned as Navy ensigns or Marine Corps second lieutenants. The Army has had an ROTC program at UH since the 1920s. The university also runs an Air Force program.

Ron Cambra, then an assistant vice chancellor, said in 2019 that UH had “always been interested in Navy (ROTC) because of the obvious Pearl Harbor (connection) and the history in the islands. It’s just that the Navy’s perception has been that they already had enough NROTC programs spread throughout the country.”