It has been a great couple of years serving as your AAAA National President. Actually, it has been a great eight year run as
your Treasurer, Secretary, Senior Vice President, and now President.
To be celebrating 40 years as an Aviation Branch and our 66th year as a professional organization as I depart is incredible
and causes me to pause and reflect on the great patriots that have built our association. Frankly, I am still humbled to have
had the privilege to serve our professional organization. Unlike most of our brother and sister military not for profit
organizations, I think you know that all of us on the AAAA National Executive Board (NEB), AAAA Scholarship
Foundation Board, and the AAAA Trade School, Licensing and Certification Foundation Board are 100% volunteers. We all
continue to serve for one purpose – we have a passion for Army Aviation, its soldiers, and its civilians and industry partners.
We have accomplished so much since Jeff Schloesser and I exchanged the gavel up in his office in the midst of the COVID-
19 crisis 2 years ago. You can only imagine the challenges Jeff faced during his presidency while navigating the pandemic. As
his Vice President, I witnessed it firsthand. Thanks again to Jeff for his leadership during our transition.
I am so proud of our team’s achievements as we re-energized following the pandemic lockdowns. From working with
the Scholarship Foundation board to realign the application cycle earlier in the year to accommodate graduation
ceremonies; to seeing the Trade School, Licensing, and Certification Foundation (TLC) make their first awards to Soldiers
seeking non-college skill programs; reviewing and realigning our By-Laws; traveling around the country for my
personally and professionally rewarding visits with 60 of our 69 CONUS chapters’ leaderships as of this writing; and
initiating a pre-Summit opening PM/industry exchange of critical acquisition issues to foster better understanding, we
have gotten a lot done. Along with that, we were able to reestablish our regimen of Government-industry engagements,
significantly growing the Cribbins Conference and expanding the ASE Symposium and Luther Jones Forum, and we are
on track to significantly beat last year’s footprint and attendance at the annual Summit in Nashville. While I am proud of
all these and many other accomplishments and would love to take credit for it, the credit goes to the National Executive
Group and to the Executive Director and his staff of outstanding professionals. In absolutely every situation, they never
accepted “no” and made my tenure so successful and just flat enjoyable. My thanks to each and every one of you for your
passion and perseverance.
While similar organizations suffered significant declines during the pandemic, our membership not only maintained but
even grew. It grew because the leadership in our chapters continued to carry the banner. The NEG will never forget that
AAAA National exists to support our chapters as the chapters serve their members.
I want to thank all my fellow AAAA Board members and especially incoming President MG (Ret.) Walt Davis, the
current Senior VP, MG (Ret.) Wally Golden, Treasurer; and BG (Ret.) Tim Edens, the Secretary as they fleet up to their
new positions. As they fleet up, I also want to welcome MG (Ret.) Todd Royar to the team as the incoming Secretary. I
am confident this team will take AAAA to the next level. I would be remiss if I did not express my personal thanks to all
the appointed members of the NEG. They have all been so supportive and proactive, chasing all my crazy ideas. I am
proud to have served with you all.
Lastly, we could not do what we do without the undying support of our industry partners. Please accept my personal thanks
for your continued support of Army Aviation and its Soldiers.
As the immediate Past President, I will remain for two years as chair of the Nominating Committee to complete my 10-
year commitment to AAAA. It has been a pleasure giving back to the Army and the Branch that gave so much to me and
my family while I was in uniform.
I look forward to seeing many of you around the Summit during the next few days.
MG Tim Crosby, U.S. Army Retired
35th President, AAAA
