Month: January 2013

Members and Friends,

As most of you know, our Chapter’s largest effort is to support ‘Our Community Salutes’ each year. This program recognizes high school seniors that have chosen to join the armed services after graduation. Last year on May 2nd, with the help of a few sponsors, particularly Summit Aviation, we were able to recognize 22 senior enlistees and their parents from New Castle County and thank them for choosing to serve their nation.

This year our event will be one of 80 such events around the country, and we hope to invite senior enlistees from all three counties in Delaware. Tim Furlong of NBC10 Philadelphia will return as the emcee and we have invited Dr Jill Biden to be our keynote speaker. As a member of the Blue Star Mothers, Dr Biden appreciates those who join, and understands the emotions of their parents. Wilmington University will again host the event and all of the military services will be represented.

To expand the event and include senior enlistees from all Delaware high schools, we need your help. Wilmington University has been gracious in providing the venue, but I am hoping to find other sponsors and donations to help defray the other costs. When you visit the OCS web page, http://www.ocsde.org, there is an option to Donate to the 2013 ceremony via credit card, Pay Pal or by sending a check. Both AUSA and OCS are 501 © 3 organizations, so contributions are tax deductible. Any support we receive will go directly toward providing a first-class event for our heroes that will depart for basic training after graduation. Help us be the “first to say thank you” to these young citizens.

Sincerely,

Gary
Gary W. Dawson
President, Delaware Chapter, AUSA
Co-Chair, Our Community Salutes Delaware

AUSA and the U.S. Army are committed to strengthening the partnership with the National Guard and Reserve. The Secretary of the Army, John M. McHugh, issued the Army Total Force Policy: Fully Integrating the Operational Reserve. This policy states that the active Army, Army National Guard and Army Reserve, as one Total Force, will provide forces to support Army commitments worldwide.

Gen. David Rodriguez, speaking Oct. 22 at the Maj. Gen. Robert G. Moorhead Guard and Reserve Breakfast before the official opening of the Association of the United States Army’s Annual Meeting and Exposition, said his command’s requirement to provide trained and ready soldiers for the spectrum of missions requires “maximizing training resources” and “inculcating all the lessons we learned in the last 11 years” for the active force, Army National Guard and Army Reserve.

He told the National Guard and Army Reserve audience that he wants to build on the strong partnerships that the two reserve components have built over the last 20 years with foreign military services and foreign governments, and their expertise in crisis response and drug interdiction and “many, many other missions” in the future.

We know that a number of you are on Facebook so we now have a Facebook page as well. We hope that it can be a place where you feel comfortable to comment, post photos, and keep in touch with what’s going on in our chapter to support Soldiers, their families, and those that work for the United States Army. Check out our Facebook page here and tell your friends too: https://www.facebook.com/AUSADelawareChapter