President's Perspective

Dear Members,

Some congratulations first!  During the Membership Holiday party on 8 December we awarded our first ever Life Membership Raffle winner.  Congratulations to Mr. Bob Johnson of S3 Inc., for becoming our newest Life Member!

The 38th Annual Joseph P. Cribbins Aviation Product Symposium for interested members of industry and the aviation logistics and acquisition communities was held on February 8-9, 2012.  The theme of this year's symposium was "Enabling the Future While Performing Today."  This year's event had 90 booths and 559 attendees.  The TVC would like to congratulate all the awardees and to thank all of our guest speakers for their time.  We would like to also thank Kari Hawkins of the Redstone Rocket for her outstanding media coverage of this event.  The TVC would like to especially acknowledge our sponsors:  Platinum (Avion Corp, QuinetiQ, NA, DynCorp, GE Aviation, S-3, Honkek, L-3 Communications, Raytheon and Venturi), Gold (Advanced Turbine Engine Co, Boeing, Clockwork Solutions, VT Group, MTSI, Lockheed Martin, The McClellan, The Nenningers, Terry Wales).  The hospitality suite was sponsored by DynCorp.  The VIP meeting room sponsored by Northrop Grumman Corp.  The Breakfast by Tyonek and DynCorp.  The Early Bird by Boeing, Yulista, Strata-G Solutions and Five Stones Resarch Corp. 

Congratulations to all the 2011 PM Centers Awardees:

Utility PMO award to Ms. Kay Thompson, Tecolote Research Inc.

TAPO PMO award to Mr.  Kelly McDougall, Cruz Associates.

UAS PMO awrd to Mr. Kevin Goates, Northrop Grumman Corporation.

Cargo PMO award to Mr. Barry Higgs, Yulista Aviation.

Aviation Systems PMO award to Mr. Thomas Coldby and Mr. Greg Lunn, PM ATC.

ASH PMO award to Mr. Marco Garcia, Corpus Christi Army Depot.

RTC award to Mr. Matthew Eaton, Aerodyne Corporation

AMRDEC award to Mr. Jim Miles, DnCorp Int'l, SAFR Program Team

CCAD award to Mr. Mike Boies, Honeywell.

AED award to Mr. Michael P. Jones, Camber Corporation.

Air Warrior award to Mr. Thomas Miller.

Apache PMO award to Mr. Timothy Roberts, QinetiQ.

NSRWA PMO award to Ms. Lyn Tilton, MD Helicopters, Inc.

Fixed Wing PMO award to Mr. Steve Leland, M7 Aerospace.

Congratulations to the AAAA National Material Readiness Awardees:

The Outstanding Logistics Support Unit of the Year was the 563rd Combat Aviation Battalion, Task Force Fighting, 159th Combat Aviation Brigade based in Kandahar, Afghanistan.  LTC John L. Smith, Commander and CSM Sean P. Ward were both still deployed.  MAJ Jason Kahne accepted the award on behalf of the unit for their serving with great distinction while deployed in support of Operation Enduring Freedon (OEF). 

The Material Readiness Award for a Contribution by and Industry Team, Group or Special Unit was awarded to PM UAS, Huntsville, AL.  COL Timothy Baxter accepted the award for the Manned-Unmanned System Integration Capability (MUSIC) team's historic aviation interoperability demonstration.

 The Material Readiness Award for a Contribution by a Major Contractor was presented to Army Fleet Support, LLC, Ft. Rucker, AL.  Mr Mark Wentlent accepted the awrd for L-3's AFS support to the U.S. Army Aviation Center of Excellence.  The 3,900 member team supported over 250,000 flying hours for 2011.

The Material Readiness Award for a Contribution by a Small Business was presented to Hawk Enterprises, LLC, Huntsville, AL.  Mr. William Tripp accepted the award for its expanding maintenance and operational training with emphasis on Soldier's needs.

And the final award of Material Readiness Award for a Contribution by an Individual Member of Industry was awarded to Mr. Anthony M. Conrad, T-700 Army Support Program Manager for General Electric Avaition for his immense contribution to Army Aviation as the key liaison between AMCOM and GE.  His contribution enabled the artisans and management of CCAD to provide engines to the Warfighter within cost and on schedule.

The 2011 Aviation Challenge Scholarship awardees were announced at the 38th APS awards dinner.  They are:  Katherine Maner of Madison in the (9-11 age group), Nicholas (Nick) Van Riper of Huntsville in the (12-14 age group) and John Buchanan from Birmingham in the (14-18 age group).

The Tennesse Valley Chapter will hold our annual Spring Bob Vlasics Classic Bass Tournament on 17 March 2012 at the Val-Monte Resort & Marina, Guntersville, AL (Old Mac's Landing).  Registration cut off is 12 March 2012.  Big Bass and other prizes are awarded, so get signed up today!

The 2012 TVC Board Election nominations are open.  The following position are up for election:  President, Secretary, VP of Programs, VP of Memberships, VP of Operations, VP of Military Affairs and VP of Government Affairs.  The term will begin 1 OCT 2012 and runs to 30 SEP 2014.  See the flyer on this site in the upcoming TVC events section for details and requirements.

Please help the TVC Membership team by updating your current e-mail address.  With over 2000 fulid members it is difficult to keep in touch with our members with information.  Please send your updated e-mail address to National AAAA at AAAA@quad-a.org

Thanks again to all of our active duty members, retirees, civilians, Industry partners and our many volunteers for making us the best "2010 Top Master Chapter in the Army Aviation Association of America."

Gary Nenninger

President, Tennessee Valley Chapter

 Army Aviation Association of America