AAAA Aviation Center Chapter

Last Friday in the US Army Fort Rucker & AVCOE footprint at The Army Aviation Museum Foundation, the chapter returned the Army Aviation Association of America National Awards from the Summit in Nashville to their resting place in the museum. Army Aviation Association of America (AAAA) Aviation Center Chapter boardmembers, Soldier Volunteers and off the sidewalk passers by helped in the annual project. The AAAA Aviation Center Chapter wishes to thank everyone who had a helping hand in this task! Thanks to 1LT Will Domler, Micheal Sutterfield, Sam Baker and others.

Everyone had a great time this year and we do beleive the morning rain really helped out with the usual gnats, hot temps and more. Hope everyone had a blast and enjoys the upcoming 4th of July Weekend!

Last Friday in the US Army Fort Rucker & AVCOE Command Conference Room of Headquarters, the AVCOE Deputy Commanding General, BG Kenneth Cole, inducted two Attack Helicopter leaders into the Honorable Order of Saint Michael - Bronze. CPT Eric J. Wasek and CPT Reilly Anne Kline, both of D/1-14th Avn Regt were nominated and approved by a committee of aviation mentors, professionals and supporters. Congratulations on the induction!

Photos by C. Klich

Last Monday, the latest Brown Hats are Class number 26-017 and their guest speaker and Brown Hat Mentor was LTG Retired Anthony Gerard "Tony" Crutchfield who retired as a United States Army Lieutenant General who was the deputy commander of United States Pacific Command from 2014 to 2017, having previously served as its Chief of Staff from 2012 to 2014. An aviation officer by branch, Crutchfield served in several aviation commands throughout his career, culminating in command of the United States Army Aviation Center of Excellence and Fort Rucker from 2010 to 2012. As USAACE commander, he was responsible for the training, doctrine, organizational structure, and future technology development for 90,000 aviation soldiers and over 4,000 aircraft. He retired on April 7, 2017, after 34 years of distinguished service.

LTG Crutchfield was dynamic and engaging as he always is when he mentor's the Brown classes. He has several things he likes to address and one of the main ones is that is never a good idea to fly over your own house. He focuses on standards and abiding by them. He challenged each student to be "ALL IN" on their new dangerous profession and to be great teammates of Trust!

Congratulations are in order to the latest class of 54 to join the training pipeline!

Just after lunch today, IERW Class #26-016, Gold Class were inducted into the legacy of the Gold hats. The legacy mentor this afternoon was MG(R) William (Tim) Crosby who traveled from Huntsville to share his experience, knowledge and leadership from the perspective of being a legacy Gold hat.

He shared many aspects of the past as well as the future. He did one thing unique to beginning the session by having every student stand, state their name, compo or country and what is their aircraft of choice. 26-016 is multi-compo, multinational with a very diverse representation of our nation being represented.

After MG Crosby, the Warrior command team, Warriors 06, 07 and 08 shared keys to success.

Once the leadership is complete briefing the new Gold Class, our very own, VP for Membership, LTC(R) Mark Taylor issued complimentary hardback flight log books and a sign up membership sheet.

Congratulations to all those who've just began their career in our branch!





Photos by S. Baker