Flight Plan from the President

The 2004 ANA Convention is now over. Later in the magazine, Zip does a terrific job of putting pictures and words together to give you all the highlights. Those who were there gave the agenda and the festivities generous praise. I thought we had a great event in a fine venue. I warned you earlier, if you don't attend you will miss a great event. And, thank goodness, I was right (for a change).

ADM Vern Clark's remarks for the closing banquet and the Naval Aviation Ball once again praised Naval Aviation for its superlative performance in Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom. He was upbeat on the future of our force and its new aircraft and carriers. His report on the Fleet Response Plan (FRP), which keeps six to eight of our Carrier Strike Groups (CSGs) ready to surge if required by the President, received a high grade. This significant change to the way Naval Aviation forces operate is already underway, and at the time of his remarks, seven of our CSGs were at sea and ready to fight.

We were also able to pull off a surprise for the CNO when VADM Malone, Commander Naval Air Force, officially designated ADM Clark an Honorary Naval Aviator and presented him his Wings of Gold. In addition to wings, VADM Malone presented the CNO a pair of brown shoes. So now ADM Clark has become the 26th member of a prestigious group that includes GEN Jimmy Doolittle, ADM Arliegh Burke and Bob Hope.

Importantly, the keynote speaker at the Defense Industry Leader's Breakfast, co-hosted by ANA and the American Shipbuilding Association, was the Honorable Joseph Schmilz, the Secretary of Defense's Inspector General. He gave an especially enlightening address on the nature of his responsibilities and answered questions from the audience at the end of his talk.

Another highlight of the Ball was the presentation of ANA's first President George H.W. Bush Award to a first-tour carrier Naval Aviator. The first winner is LT Matthew Doyle, USN of VFA-115 (see page 14). The award included a picture of former President Bush and former CNO, ADM Holloway (who proposed the idea of the award to Mr. Bush) holding the trophy. We also had a very moving letter from the current President Bush saluting us and the winner of the award honoring his father. It was a very special event, and the Association is proud to be connected with this continuing award.

I can't let a review of the convention end without including our Friday evening salute to VADM Don Engen at the Udvar Hazy Center at Dulles Airport, the newest addition to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. Our busses made it through a driving rain storm that didn't dampen our spirits a bit. We had this magnificent museum to ourselves, and I witnessed many of our troops going around the exhibits telling war stories of "when I flew this airplane." We were honored to have the Admiral's widow, Mrs. Mary Engen, her son-in-law RADM Bob Ellis and wife Candace (Engen), and son Charlie with us for the evening. Charlie also made an excellent CD highlighting VADM Engen's career that was on display throughout our visit. VADM Engen was a pioneer in aerial refueling and was instrumental in working with the British to develop the mirror landing system for our carriers - the story was shown in the CD. It was an extra tribute to be with the Engen family and for many of our members to relive their association with VADM Engen. All the food was outstanding . . . but the desserts . . . if you are a chocolate lover; you were in "hawg heaven". People were two and three deep around the dessert table all evening, and I'm sure we set the record for cholesterol rise in one event.

There was only one problem with the convention - we did not have enough people in attendance: We had only slightly over 200. I want to give all our members an orientation on what is required when we plan this annual event. Primarily, we must make a contract with a good hotel that can provide the space and services required for an event like ours. This begins with our estimating the number of hotel rooms we will fill. We do our very best in researching past events for numbers of rooms needed. We try to accomplish two objectives: First we need to have enough rooms at a lower rate to take care of all our members who reserve before the deadline; second we need to come as close as possible to the exact number of rooms needed, because if we do not fill the contracted number of rooms we have to pay the hotel a penalty charge. All good hotels require this penalty and it is the only way they can discount the rooms - they must have a guarantee for the number of rooms and the number of people who will be paying for services in the hotel. We did not meet our contract obligations for the number of rooms this year, and it resulted in a penalty charge to ANA. Therefore, we lost a significant amount of money on the convention.

I mention this only because ANA belongs to you! ANA was chartered in 1975 and the first convention took place a year later. Our members asked for that convention, and to the best of my knowledge this demand still exists. It is the time of our annual membership meeting; it is the time when our leadership and membership come together to recharge their batteries, and pledge themselves to another year of ensuring our national populace is aware of Naval Aviation and what it is doing for them. Our by-laws state that all our local squadrons shall send a delegation to the convention and the "squadron delegation shall be led by the commanding officer or his/her representative." I realize that even as hard as we try to keep costs down, the convention is an expensive trip for many of you. I regret that, and pledge we will continue to keep the costs as low as possible. But if we are to continue the convention, we must have our membership's support for the events. We cannot continue a negative cash-flow and drain our financial resources.

To this end, your Executive Committee is holding a special meeting on 23 September 2004 to consider the way ahead for ANA, and to make any changes to the convention that are required. It is time to look again at where we have been, and to chart the way ahead. ANA was established with lofty goals: to support Naval Aviation throughout our nation, to ensure it remains a strong force in our nation's security, and to keep our political leadership aware of Naval Aviations' future requirements. This is not an easy task, but one to which we must all remain dedicated. Maintaining our camaraderie and getting new members to be part of our quest is an important part of this task. I am sending a questionnaire to all squadron Commanding Officers requesting their inputs before this important meeting. If you have ideas or comments that you want considered at the meeting, please call your Commanding Officer so he or she can include them with his recommendations.

To wrap up my comments, I want to share with you a feeling I had at the Convention. As I looked down the head table I saw CNO, former CNO and new Chairman of the ANA Board, Emeritus, ADM Jim Holloway, ANA's CEO, ADM Stan Arthur, and their wives, plus VADM Mike Malone, Commander Naval Air Force. With outstanding men and women like these supporting ANA, we members must continue to keep the organization strong and growing. We owe it to them, to Naval Aviation, and to ourselves.

Copyright Association of Naval Aviation Summer 2004
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