Welcome everyone to the 2024 AAAA Annual Mission Solution Summit! Our Branch Chief, MG Mac McCurry, and the entire Army Aviation Leadership will be bringing you all up to date on everything from training and operations, to acquisition and sustainment, special operations, Reserve and National Guard priorities and so much more all under the theme “Transforming Aviation Warfighting – Strengthening Our Sacred Trust.” It is with great regret that I’ve had to ‘take a knee’ due to a medical condition, and as a result am unable to attend and participate in what I know will be an incredible Mission Sol ..read more

It is hard to believe that another month has flown by. As you read this, we will have convened a meeting with the National Executive Group and our committee chairs to review several areas, importantly our efforts at developing an organizational strategic plan, and to set expectations for the upcoming National Executive Board meeting in April at the Summit. More to follow, but please check the AAAA website to make sure you know who the committee chairs are and get your issues to them; they are your conduit to each mission area from membership to awards, and Hall of Fame to Reserve Component aff ..read more

Looking Back, March 2024 By Mark Albertson Parochial Thinking / Seeds of Contention On June 4, 1920, the National Defense Act was signed into law by President Woodrow Wilson. The Act saw fit to organize the United States Army as an aggregate of three subdivisions: The Regular Army, National Guard and the organized reserves of civilians or Officers’ and Enlisted Reserve Corps. The Regular Army was to have a manpower strength of 17,726 officers and 280,000 enlisted. Of course, this was dependent upon Congress and whether it appropriated enough money for a ground force of even this size. And this ..read more

Your AAAA leadership has just returned from the Aviation Senior Leaders’ Forum at Fort Novosel, AL, held January 22-25, 2024. What an extraordinary forum hosted by our Branch Chief, MG Mac McCurry, and his Branch Team, with the theme of “Transforming Aviation Warfighting – Strengthening the Sacred Trust.” From the opening “Gathering of Leaders” reception at the Army Aviation Museum, to the classified and unclassified briefings covering the status of Army Aviation and our Army, to the Aviation Awards Dinner that recognized both AAAA Functional Awards winners and the LTG Ellis D. Parker Aviation ..read more

The Annual Summit in Denver will be barely 90 days away by the time you read this. Incredible! We hope that everyone had a wonderful Christmas and New Year’s holiday; really looking forward to the year ahead and the great work that your Association will do in support of our Aviation family. Bill Harris and I had the privilege of travelling to Lubbock, Texas after Thanksgiving to join the leadership of the Vietnam Helicopter Pilots Association (VHPA) Legacy Committee to see how our Association might best support them in the future, as it plans its inevitable ‘sunset.’ Art Jacobs and Don LeMaste ..read more

Looking Back, February 2024 By Mark Albertson Air Defense Tactics of Soviet Airborne Units By Thomas M. Salisbury, III Edited by Mark Albertson [Thomas M. Salisbury, III, an Intelligence Analyst with the Red Team, Office of the Assistant Chief of Staff for Intelligence, HQDA, attended the Virginia Military Institute and served in the U.S. Army Security Agency from 1966 to 1970.] * Army Aviation, pages 49-52, Vol. 29, No. 11, Army Aviation Publications, Inc., Westport, Ct., November 30, 1980. * * * * * Soviet military journals categorize the primary threat to parachute and heliborne assault for ..read more

First, on behalf of the entire AAAA National Executive Board, and Bill Harris and Janis Arena’s team at the Monroe, Connecticut AAAA global headquarters, I would like to wish you and your families all the peace that is the promise of this holiday season. We hope you have had some time to enjoy each other’s company and appreciate all we must be thankful for. As we start the new year, we are blessed for all that AAAA does, and will do, for you and your families in the future. We have just concluded our Cribbins Readiness Conference in Huntsville, Alabama as I write this. By metrics, it was our m ..read more

Looking Back, December 2023 By Mark Albertson Philosophy of Command By Brigadier General George P. Seneff, Jr. General George P. Seneff, page 38, Army Aviation, January 31, 1999 issue. The following was written by Brigadier General George P. Seneff, Jr. in 1966, while he was commanding the 1st Aviation Brigade in Vietnam. * * * * * A World War I division commander whom I knew fairly well, and who was a great gentleman and fine commander, said to me one evening in 1945, “I have finally come to realize that the only way to be a good commander in wartime is to be a first-class SOB.” I have though ..read more