AAAA National President, MG (Ret.) Wally Golden receives a memento from Grizzly Chapter President, COL Shiloh Briggs, for being the guest speaker at the chapter-sponsored California Army National Guard Army Aviation Banquet on June 1, 2025 in Clovis, CA.
Story by Capt. Shervon Pope
I am excited and honored to have been elected as your new AAAA National President at our annual Mission Solutions Summit in Nashville back in May. I’m also excited to share some insights with you in this, my first installment of “The Cockpit.”
First, let me thank our outgoing President, and my friend, MG (Ret.) Walt Davis, who led AAAA so well during the last two years, establishing a cohesive team of your National Executive Group (NEG), including BG (Ret.) Tim Edens, now our Senior VP, and MG Todd Royar, our new Treasurer. It has been an honor to serve with and for Walt. I pledge to build on his many successes and work every day to represent you all, as we work through these times of change and challenge.
Congratulations to our new NEG Secretary, BG (Ret.) Ray Davis, along with our new VP Chapters, COL (Ret.) John Broam and new VP Membership, COL (Ret.) Liz Martin. My heartfelt thanks to Jan Drabczuk and Becki Chambers for their long and distinguished service to AAAA as the previous VPs for Chapters and Membership. I’m also proud to announce that MG (Ret.) Laura Yeager, former 40th Infantry Division Commanding General, has accepted a National Executive Board (NEB) Member-at-Large Position and will replace Ray Davis as Chairperson of our AAAA Army National Guard and US Army Reserve Committee.
Your AAAA NEG has been busy since the Summit in May. I was honored to attend the Grizzly Chapter Ball in June at Clovis, CA. What a great event! My thanks go out to Chapter President, Shiloh Briggs, and his entire team for their warm welcome and hospitality. Their event epitomized the AAAA pillars of networking and recognition as they provided a venue for camaraderie and fellowship while awarding many outstanding individual members and units during their event. I thoroughly enjoyed the evening and look forward to visiting many other chapters during my tenure as president.
A couple of weeks after the AAAA Summit our new National Executive Group (NEG) met for three days at the AAAA National Headquarters in Connecticut to coordinate our efforts to best serve you. We reviewed everything from our almost finalized Strategic Plan, to sponsoring UAS drone centric events, and reshaping our major events, all to make sure that AAAA is future-focused and relevant to you, the Branch, and the Army for decades to come.
If my years in uniform taught me anything, it is that change is inevitable, and that Army Aviation and our Nation always come out better, stronger and more capable in the process. All of us at AAAA are moving out smartly to better serve you in all of our four pillars of Networking, Recognition, Voice and Support as we embrace unmanned systems, autonomy, counter drone and all the realities of the emerging battlefield as we prepare for future conflict.
I guarantee that the AAAA will be there for you to provide the venues, platforms and opportunities for the entire community to come together to achieve these objectives.
The future of the U.S. Army and Army Aviation looks exciting for sure! Your AAAA leadership team looks forward to being a supporting change agent as we all continue to Support the U.S. Army Soldier and Family!
Above the Best!
MG Wally Golden, U.S. Army Retired
37th President, AAAA
Wally.golden@quad-a.org
