Welcome to our annual Army Aviation “Blue Book” Directory issue that provides all of our members with an enormously broad perspective across the entire Army Aviation Enterprise. I know many look forward to this ‘one of a kind’ issue, as it serves as an invaluable resource of information about our Total Aviation force structure and personnel.
I’ll begin by informing you all that I had the privilege of representing our Association at several events recognizing and honoring our Aviation and Joint Force leaders. First, I thank our immediate past Branch Chief, MG Mac McCurry, for two great years working together with AAAA to make sure we were doing our best to support the Branch priorities and initiatives through our AAAA forums and activities. He and Sadie have been outstanding, and we look forward to their continued success at Army Futures Command. We are blessed as a force to have MG Clair Gill, our new Branch Chief, setting the path ahead; we look forward to working closely with him and his team at Fort Novosel to ensure AAAA is synchronized in our support of the Branch. Next, a huge thank you to MG Tom O’Connor, the now former AMCOM Commanding General, who has transitioned to become Director of Force Development for the Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff, G-8. MG O’Connor has always been an ardent supporter of our Association and his commitment to our Mission is second to none. We are so grateful to have MG Lori Robinson taking the AMCOM reins and look forward to working with her and the AMCOM team in support of their sustainment and readiness mission. And finally, to another outstanding advocate and supporter of AAAA and our most senior Army Aviator, GEN Dan Hokanson, now the former Chief of the National Guard Bureau, was honored twice for his incredible lifetime of service at retirement ceremonies at Fort Myer and in Medford, Oregon (where he served many years as the Oregon Adjutant General). All three were inducted into the Gold Order of St. Michael!
By the time you read this, AAAA will already be well into our busy season of events. Starting with the Army Aviation Survivability Forum that ran from September 15-17 in Huntsville, AL; followed by the Cribbins Readiness Conference, November 11-13 back in Huntsville, AL; the Luther G. Jones Army Aviation Depot Forum, December 10-11 in Corpus Christi, TX; and of course the upcoming annual AAAA Army Aviation Mission Solutions Summit, May 14-16, 2025 in Nashville, TN.
I have been asked from time to time, why does AAAA do all this? As you can imagine there is a ton of work with all the logistics, planning, and execution involved in all of them. And, with the exception of the big Annual Summit, the other events barely break even or sometimes even run at a loss especially post COVID with huge increases in hotel, food, and audio-visual charges. So again, why do we do all this?
The answer is in our Mission Statement, “AAAA: Supporting the U.S. Army Aviation Soldier and Family.” These events go back long before COVID. The Cribbins event dates from the 1970s, and Survivability from the 1980s are two examples. They along with the Summit that began in 1959 were and are what today we now call “Networking” opportunities for the whole community to gather around a particular subject like Depot Maintenance in the Luther Jones case or the entire spectrum of Army Aviation in the case of the Summit.
What these other smaller events have yielded are significant real-world impacts to our war-fighting Soldiers ranging from improved ballistic protection, to proliferation of unique equipment from the Special Operations world to Big Army, to making sure that Depot capabilities are understood by our major units in the field, and lessons learned in classified sessions for our government and industry partners at the Survivability Forum. You can’t measure the lives saved and successful operations that these events have contributed to, but believe me, they are real.
Together with “Networking,” the other three pillars that support our Mission Statement are Recognition, Voice, and Support. Each of these are also on display at every one of these events especially the “Recognition” pillar with our AAAA Awardees featured at each event from the UAS Soldier of the Year, to Air-Sea Rescue and Fixed Wing Unit awards.
You simply cannot beat the benefits of face-to-face engagements with your peers, Army Aviation leadership, and Industry Partners as we all work together to keep Army Aviation at the tip of the spear of our nation’s Land Warfare capability.
MG Walt Davis, U.S. Army Retired
36th President, AAAA
walt.davis@quad-a.org
