Annual Meeting Transcripts

1. Opening Remarks
2. Chairman’s Report from Gen. John W. Hendrix, USA-Ret.
3. President’s Report from Vice Adm. Norbert R. Ryan Jr., USN-Ret.
4. Chief Financial Officer’s Report from Col. Glenn Zauber, USAF-Ret.
5. Government Relations Report from Col. Steve Strobridge, USAF-Ret.
6. Chapter and Council Awards
7. Question and Answer Session
8. Lunchtime Opening Remarks and Introduction of the Guest Speaker
9. Guest Speaker: Lt. Gen. Thomas F. Metz, USA
10. Biography of Lt. Gen. Thomas F. Metz, USA

1. Opening Remarks

GENERAL HENDRIX: Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. If you are continuing to finish your breakfast, let me encourage you to do that, but before we launch into the Annual Meeting, there are a few comments I'd like to make and some people I'd like to recognize. So I encourage you to continue your breakfast, but I want to give you a couple of data points about our meeting today. First of all, to recognize some people: Let me say on the front end that a meeting like this requires, of course, extraordinary efforts by great people, and as we've gone through the last couple of days when we have come together, we have tried to recognize appropriately some of those who make this possible. But there are a couple of people that I would like to recognize that I haven't done yet, and one of them in Nan O'Leary and the other is Yumi Belanga, and I don't know if either one of these are in here are not, but if they are, I'd like for them to stand and let us thank them for their great work in helping to put on this this week. [Applause.]

I'm told that they're out at the desk continuing to work really hard. And, of course, the other one is Suzanne Walker, who manages all of this, and Suzanne does a tremendous job. And to Suzanne, we thank you very much for the great work as well. [Applause.]

Now, some interesting points. I hope we got this right, but our records show that the member present with the longest tenure as a member here this morning is Lieutenant Colonel Ron Severson from Arizona, who has been a member since June 1969, and our newest member is Lieutenant Colonel Steve McPherson, who joined on October 21 last month. The oldest member in attendance according to our records is Colonel Ben Marshall, whose 89th birthday is today. Now hold just for minute. And I'll introduce our youngest member in just a moment. So if those members are present, I'd like to ask you to stand and the rest of you please join me in welcoming them -- these great members. [Applause.]

Okay. They were hidden over in the corner over here. They must have got together. You must have had a script or something. Now, let me introduce a special member of our association, the youngest member in attendance. He's Captain Mike DeMarco, United States Army, and he currently serves or he is currently assigned to 10th Mountain Division at Fort Drum, New York. But this winter, he will attend the Military Intelligence Advance Course at Fort Huachuca, Arizona, and, Mike, among other things, that's not a bad trick pulling off an upstate New York winter for an Arizona winter. [Laughter.]

Mike is the son of another MOAA member. His dad is Colonel Richard M. DeMarco, United States Army, Retired. Mike graduated from Tulane University in 2002 with a degree in both political science and history, and he was a member of Army ROTC through which he received his commission into the Army. After being commissioned and completing his initial training tours at Fort Benning, Georgia, he was slated for a different stateside assignment, but when he learned that most of his friends, or many of his friends, were being assigned to the Middle East, he requested a transfer to Iraq.

He went there, and while he served in Iraq Mike was a platoon leader, an infantry platoon, routinely performing those sorts of duties that you see on television and a lot that you do not see on television, 36-hour security patrols and such things, and most important of those, of course, were looking after his soldiers, which he did a great job of doing. Mike was wounded in January by what we call an IED, which is an improvised explosive device, and those are the things that you see the insurgents in Iraq using so well, and Afghanistan.

An IED went off near his Humvee, and he received shrapnel wounds to his face and to his, I believe, right arm and shoulder. He's recovered and has since returned to full duty. Mike has asked for a couple of minutes to speak with you because during his college, three of his years, he was the recipient of a MOAA scholarship through our Scholarship Fund and so was his sister Carol. So Mike would like to tell you about what the Scholarship Fund meant to him. Mike, the floor is yours. [Applause.]

CAPTAIN DeMARCO: Thank you, sir, and I'd like to thank all of you for inviting me down here to speak as your guest this morning and to say a few words about the importance of the scholarship and what it means to dependents. If it hadn't been for the financial support that I received as a dependent through the MOAA Scholarship Fund, I would not have been able to complete my studies or my ROTC obligation, which would have prevented me from receiving my commission in 2002 at that time. And if that had been the case, a lot of things in a lot of people's lives would be different in a lot of ways today, and I just want to say that I'm eternally grateful for the assistance that this organization offered me at a time when I needed it to complete my obligation and to move forward in a way that I thought would contribute and make a difference.

And there are lots of other people out there like that, too. So again, if it hadn't been for that financial assistance, a lot of things would be different, and I think I'd like to say also that you can expect to see in the future increased support from my generation of junior officers that are still developing and seeing the benefits of an organization like MOAA, all that it offers and other similar veterans’ and servicemember organizations. And I think you will see a heightened participation and contribution in the effort in the future on behalf of, again, my generation of junior officers, and I look forward to the opportunity in the future for taking the torch and allowing others to follow our lead just as you've given us the opportunity to follow your lead.

So I'd really just like to thank you for inviting me to be here as a guest, really a hell of an opportunity. I'm missing 19-degree, 15-degree weather right now and about a foot and a half of snow in the past 48 hours that's fallen since I left upstate New York. And I'm looking forward to enjoying 65 to 68 degree temperatures down here. Hopefully, that will last through tomorrow and it clears up a little bit, because I don't know when I'm going to see the sun again up in upstate New York. And as the general referenced, I will be hopefully moving out to Fort Huachuca pretty soon. But, again, thank you for your support. [Applause.]

GENERAL HENDRIX: Well, we couldn't stop the spontaneous applause there, but, Mike, we have a surprise for you before we let you get off the stage. As I mentioned, Mike's dad is a retired Army colonel and he also is a member of MOAA, and he asked us to present to Mike today a lifetime membership in MOAA in his behalf. So Mike, to you from your dad. [Applause.]

Okay. I think that if my watch is right, it's probably acceptable that we can go ahead and just transition here into our Annual Meeting. So with that, I'm going to now call our Annual Meeting to order. And if you haven't finished your breakfast, you still should feel free to go ahead and start that. And let me welcome you to our Annual Meeting. It is for us important that we engage, that we are here to learn more about what our members want. It is your organization. We are your representatives. So, thank you for coming, and I was surprised last night at the reception that we have people from so many places. I think 22 states are represented here in the Annual Meeting, about 300 members and family members represented here. Thank you for coming. I'd like to start out by asking our national chaplain to lead us in the invocation. Chaplain Hoffmann.

BRIGADIER GENERAL HOFFMANN: George Patton claimed that he experienced the spirits on the battlegrounds of Europe. I do not have that sense of clairvoyance, but I did walk quietly past the Alamo yesterday. And what I share with you this morning has been inspired by that experience. Let's pray:

Oh, Lord, we come to Thee in the stillness of this time, when perhaps we can hear the mission bell chime peace on earth, goodwill to men. But as we listen more, we hear ancient sounds of rifles and cannons roar. What is heard from centuries past is from those who stood their ground. Their lot was cast. From that hallowed place just an earshot away, we see the ground and floors upon which patriots lay. The sounds now blend into those of today, for we still hear the cacophony of war and cries for freedom and justice many miles away.

Thus, we who are here today are charged to care for men and women who continue to dare, placing themselves in harm's way, and the fight is never fair. Yet, in the stillness of this moment, perhaps we can hear the sounds of freedom so far and yet so near. For all our children who serve without shame remind us again our work is done in their name. Empower us today to work for tomorrow when wars will end and there will be no more sorrow. Amen.

GENERAL HENDRIX: Thank you, Chaplain. I'm going to ask you to stand with me for the Posting of the Colors. It's actually a Presenting of the Colors followed by the National Anthem, and then I'm going to ask you to remain standing after that to participate in the Pledge of Allegiance. Present the Colors. [Posting of the Colors.]
Okay. Would you please now join me in the Pledge of Allegiance? [In unison.] I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which It stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.] [National Anthem.] [Retirement of the Colors.]
Ladies and gentlemen, please be seated. Our soloist this morning was Tech Sergeant Donna Siler, United States Air Force. She's a member of the Air Force -- [Applause.]

Sergeant Siler is a member of the Air Force Band of the West, headquartered here at Lackland Air Force Base, and we thank you very much for that magnificent rendition, and I know she had to stand here by me, and then when you all started signing, I had to start signing, and I noticed that you almost diverted from the tune because I can't carry one, and I think you probably were confused. Great job. Thanks a lot. And thanks for being here and for what you do for our country. The color guard, the Gordon Highlander Color Guard this morning, was provided by the Winston Churchill High School Junior ROTC under the command of Cadet Major Dezirae Montez. Cadet Major Montez, would you please come up? [Applause.]

Cadet Major Montez, I'm very pleased to present you with a check for $500 for the Junior ROTC Fund with our thanks for the Color Guard's fine performance and adding so much to our meeting this morning.

MS. MONTEZ: Thank you, sir. [Applause.]

GENERAL HENDRIX: Okay. That's an inspiring way to start it with a great group of young Americans, and before we start to get to the agenda today, let me explain what brings us here. This is our Annual Meeting. We are a Virginia-based corporation and, as required by law, we must conduct an annual meeting of the membership.

In the past several years, your Board of Directors has decided that we would take advantage of that requirement by having each of our annual meetings in a different region of the country. So the purpose of moving the meeting around is to give you a chance to speak -- the national membership [a chance] to speak to your elected representatives on the board, and for us to get a chance firsthand to hear from you your concerns, your interests, and as I said earlier, this is after all your organization and we want to be responsive to you, our membership.

You should know that the members of your board of directors are present today, seated around the room. I'm going to ask my fellow directors to stand so that the membership will know who you are, and I ask you as members, please don't hesitate to introduce yourself to your directors and engage them so that we do get the feedback that we so much want here. Directors, would you please stand? [Applause.]

And I can assure you that all of the members of our staff and directors here are anxious to hear what's on your mind. And we're fortunate today to also have among us some former members of the national board of directors, and I'd like to introduce them. They help to guide our association to its current position of prominence, and I think we have four here. If I miss someone, I would ask you to please introduce yourself as well, but I think we have the following present: Colonel Jim Mundt, Colonel Bill Wollenberg, Lieutenant Colonel Lees Broome, and Major Chuck Saucier, and I think that in most of those cases the families are here with them. I know that in some cases they are, so the better halves of those former directors, we welcome you as well. Thanks for the leadership that you've all given to our organization and welcome. [Applause.]

There are some other great volunteers that I'd like to take a moment to recognize and make sure that you, our membership, are aware of their contribution. First, the members of our two board advisory committees. You may or might not be aware that we have these two, but we have an Active Duty, Guard, and Reserve Member Advisory Committee, and we have an Auxiliary Member Advisory Committee. They give us as volunteers a tremendous amount of time, but they give us wonderful insights into the concerns and the recommendations of those segments of our membership that they represent, and we're very much in their debt. I'd like to ask the members of both of those advisory committees to please stand and be recognized. [Applause.]

And I think obviously we don't have all of those members here. Some of them have had to leave, but we have eight members, I think, of the Active Duty, Guard, and Reserve Advisory Committee and six members of our Auxiliary Member Advisory Committee. But they are tremendously energetic and do a great job in representing the various interests of our membership. So thanks again to all of you, and I want our membership to know what you do.

I also would like to recognize one other group, and I do this just about every opportunity that I get because they are just so wonderful, and that is to recognize our magnificent MOAA national staff. I've been a lot of places, a member of a lot of organizations in my lifetime, but I've never seen a better, more dedicated staff than we have. Of course, you're going to meet in just a moment, those of you who don't know him, the person who leads our organization. That's Vice Admiral Retired Norb Ryan, who is our national president. But one of the things that Norb brings to this is he supervises on a daily basis the staff of our organization. What a tremendous staff, and they are really what makes, to a large extent, the national contribution of this organization what it is. I'm going to ask those members of our staff who are here with us, would you please stand and let us recognize your contributions, and they're probably scattered out all over the building and not here, but those members of the staff who are here, thank you. [Applause.]

A great staff. As your program says to you, we have a lunch today and we have a great guest speaker, Lieutenant General Tom Metz, who is the Commander of U.S. Army III Corps located up at Fort Hood, Texas. I've known him for many years. He is a tremendously dedicated and talented American, and we're very fortunate to have him as our lunch speaker. So I encourage you to be here for that lunch speaker. He's a veteran of Iraq. In fact, he led the ground effort in Iraq for the preceding year. We have another great leader over there now, the 18th Airborne Corps Commander, Lieutenant General J.R. Vines. But preceding him in the second stage of this war was Tom Metz, and we're very fortunate. I think you will really, really enjoy his speech and find that his remarks will be very interesting and very insightful about what's going on in the war against terrorism.

When we complete the agenda this morning, we will leave this room, and we need to be out of here by 11 o'clock because they have to turn this room on its head to get ready for the luncheon, and then we'll come back in at 12 and we'll have the luncheon and General Metz' speech. Refreshments will be available before lunch, and so please when you leave here make sure after this meeting, after the Annual Meeting is over, before the lunch, that you take all of your personal belongings with you, because it is literally going to be turned on its head, and we can't be responsible for what you left behind. It won't be here when you come back. I promise you that. So, again, I thank all of you for coming today, and we'll move on now to the agenda. Again, over 300 of you from various places, and I'm really pleased that you're here. It's a fine tribute to our organization and we thank you for coming to be with us today.

So now I will take a few minutes to report to you as your chairman on your organization, and then I'm going to turn it over to Norb Ryan who will speak in more detail, along with the staff, about some of our special areas of interest. I'd like to say on the front end one other thanks to the Texas Council of Chapters for your hospitality in bringing us here. A great organization. I was asking someone earlier. Since Texas is kind of a country unto itself, it always has been -- [Laughter.]--it still sees itself as such. [Applause.]

How many chapters do we have in Texas, I think the number was like 22,000, or what did you say, Tim? Or 22 or something I guess it was. How many chapters in Texas? 28. Incredible. And to Bob, who is the head of that organization, that's a tougher leadership challenge than I had in 37 years of active duty in the Army, so good luck to you. So good luck to you, Bob, in leading that organization, but thanks for being so hospitable to us, the Alamo Chapter, in particular, and, of course, to the leaders and citizens of San Antonio. What better place could you go to hold an annual meeting? Great city, the military city of the United States of America, and all of the MOAA members who are here. I know I have many friends retired here I think from all the services and this is a special city. Thanks to Military City USA for being great hosts to us. [Applause.]

[back to top]

2. Chairman’s report

GENERAL HENDRIX: Now, I'm happy to report to you that our organization is in good shape, both financially and programmatically. Norb will talk to you about membership in just a moment because that is an area that we're concentrating a lot of effort on. We are losing membership slowly, but the issue there is simply because members of the "Greatest Generation" continue to die out at a faster rate than we produce new members.

You can look at this as a good news or a bad news story, but here's the issue, and the reason that we concentrate so much effort on it. It is that, our membership, that brings the power to this organization. Our real programs are legislative programs and member services, and when we go to Congress, it's incredibly important that we be able to say we have 360, 370,000 members that we represent and that speaks to every congressman and woman. So that membership is important. It is declining slowly, and I emphasize slowly, and I emphasize that we are directing the organization in a way that will help us preserve and increase that membership so that we're able to do a better job of meeting the needs of our servicemen and women, families and veterans, everyone in uniform.

So we're addressing that issue vigorously, and Norb and the staff will talk to you in a little bit more detail about it. I'd like to take a few minutes to focus on our vision. Most organizations have visions. Ours is no different. Ours is simply to be the most respected influential and responsive professional military organization anywhere, and to be respected, you need to be just about the best at what you do. In our case, that means being the most effective on Capitol Hill, the most effective military organization on Capitol Hill, providing the best and most relevant information to our members, and offering an array of really useful products and services. This is what your board of directors believes that MOAA can be and is and must be, and when we speak, whether it's to Congress, whether it's to members of the administration, in the Pentagon, in the White House, or wherever, the nation at large, that we speak with one powerful voice.

This vision of being the best at what we do affects each of the strategic decisions made by your board and the daily tactical decisions made, many of them, by our terrific staff each day. If you've been in touch with the headquarters recently, then you know that they provide world-class service to all of our members. Our motion of promoting a strong national defense covers many areas. MOAA wants to be the most effective organization shaping relevant government policy, and we spend a lot of our time and effort, both at the staff and board level, in trying to compose those issues that we want to take to the government and the policies that we want the government to enact in our behalf. We want to be the most responsive and valuable source of information for our members. We want to promote enduring values of military professionals and we want to provide high quality products and services in helping members meet their professional, financial, and family needs.

Many of the board's strategic decisions are embodied in our strategic plan. We just recently updated our strategic plan. The landscape that we live in is changing. I talked about the reducing membership. We have the horizon of a tremendously decreased defense budget, so as this horizon changes, we have to adapt to those changes. Most organizations do, but our plan is our response to that, and it's composed and updated this year in a way that gives our staff a clear picture of what the board would like for us to accomplish, our priorities, and where we have to apply our financial and personnel resources to do it. It helps the board to be an integral part of the MOAA process by being the strategic planners for the organization. It shows us how best to do our job which serves your interests or the interests of our membership.

And we've learned a lot over the years as we've crafted and modified our strategic plan, and one of the many realities we've faced, as I said, is that we have to continue to adapt to change. If we don't, we become irrelevant; we certainly become left behind with no hope of making our vision come true. And that's why we're always making the changes, pushing new legislative initiatives, new products and services, improving our super Web site and our award-winning publications. It all comes down to making MOAA not merely relevant but truly essential to all of our members -- all members of the military family, officer, enlisted, Active Duty, Guard, Reserve, retired, former military personnel, and their family members.

So the board and the staff want to serve you, our members, at all stages of your lives and careers. The only way we can do this and do it better than anyone else is to keep listening to you, through your telephone calls and e-mails, and I ask you -- we will talk a little bit later about our legislative agenda, and I mentioned that the power that we bring to this is our membership, and if you don't get periodically Legislative Alerts from Steve Strobridge, then you're not connected to us in some way, and we really want to connect that.

But when you get them, if you don't answer that with an action, then we've missed a powerful opportunity to get our policies and our issues attended to by Congress. There is nothing more effective than letters, telephone calls, and e-mails going to Congress that indicate to them what we want them to accomplish. Steve and his guys do a great job. Our Legislative Committee and staff do a great job of identifying those issues and laying them out and orchestrating the way for us to get that done. So I ask you that when you get those messages or when you get something in a magazine that says send this in or you get an e-mail, then please do that because that's where we get our power from.

But we have a great staff and we want to keep listening to you through good communications and we want to elicit your responsiveness to help us do what's good for our organization. The question is, what do you need, what can we help you with, what do you want Congress to do for us? And as long as we know that, we know that you're not shy, so you're going to have an opportunity later on in the meeting today to engage with us in a question and answer session, and we look forward to that. I just ask you not to be shy in representing what you want so that we won't be shy in representing that to the government, and I can assure you that we aren't. We've made the statement that regardless of declining budgets, regardless of adversarial political views, we will not back one inch away from the issues. We will represent our uniformed services men and women and their families, and you can take that to the bank. We will not back off at all. [Applause.]

I would also tell you that MOAA continues to be the most important and respected organization in Washington. Whether it's working with the other 35 members of the Military Coalition, and we do that, we really lead that organization, or being invited to sit down with members of the administration, all the way from the Department of Defense to the president of the United States, meeting with members of Congress and the staff, this organization leads the way in representing you, all of our members. And I'll tell you that our organization is known throughout the government for its integrity, its knowledge, its strong supportive membership, and its persistence on the issues. One of the things that we take to all of our meetings with the government is they know that they better listen to us because we will not stop. And that's powerful, too. So these are-- [Applause.]

Thank you. Just one or two last points. These are challenging times for our country. I alluded to that earlier, and for those of us or those who now have the honor of wearing the uniform of our country, we are, and there is no other way to say this, we're at war, but the truth of the matter is that only about one percent of the American population really are making any real sacrifices in that war. The national debt is increasing at a tremendous rate, due in part to several natural disasters, but due to a very broad array of shameful pork-barrel expenditures.

And all too often those men and women who are in uniform serve and are caught in the middle. On the one hand, they're asked to perform great sacrifices to advance our national policies, and then, on the other hand, Congress won't even authorize a reasonable health care program for guardsmen and reservists who are called to active duty. I would say to you that during World War II period of time, our defense budget was about 8 percent of the gross domestic product. Today, it's on the way down and it's about 3 percent of the gross domestic product. So it makes you kind of wonder what's on the mind of our national leaders, and where their priorities are. And it underscores my point about the importance of ensuring that our members' voices together, that one powerful voice, is heard by those leaders in Washington. So I ask you to be responsive and to play your part and to cast your vote to make sure that we do not go back on our pledge of support for all of our uniformed servicemen and women and their families and their veterans and their survivors.

We on the board and the staff are delighted to be here with you in San Antonio and we're anxious to hear your concerns, your complaints, your compliments if you have any. Let us know what you think and, as I said, after all, we work for you, for each one of you, and MOAA is your organization. Let me now introduce--I started to say the greatest president that MOAA has ever had. I should never say that because we've had a long line of great presidents, and Norb would be the first to say that Mike Nelson, who preceded him, was a great president. We probably would have said he was the greatest. But I'll tell you one thing. We are very fortunate to have this fine American serving this organization. Norb Ryan is tremendous, and let me turn the floor over to our President, Vice Admiral Norb Ryan. [Applause.]

[back to top]

3. President’s Report

VICE ADMIRAL RYAN: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Boy, I'm not even going to try and follow that. I'm just the president. And so I can give you a little bit more down in the detail snapshot of how we're doing, but if I convey anything, it's simply what the chairman has conveyed, and that is I do truly feel honored to be your ninth president in 77 years. You tend to keep folks around that you pick, and I'm very grateful that I've been here for three years. And I really just represent all the members of the board and the staff. We all feel very privileged and very passionate about the job we have because we work for all of you who we happen to think are the foundation and bedrock for this country. The values that you all represent are what have made this country great and that's what is going to continue to keep our country strong, and so if I convey no other point, it's simply what a privilege and passion we feel for our jobs, all of us at the headquarters level, and we thank you for the opportunity.

This morning I'd like to just give you a little bit of an update on our association, discuss where we're going with our ongoing efforts, talk about some of the challenges that we confront that the chairman alluded to, and then how together we can continue to make a difference. As you all know, for 75 years we were TROA. But to better reflect what we're all about in our mission, on the first of January 2003, we changed our name, and I'm very, very grateful that we've done that. As the chairman said, that we saw the future and we've adapted. It's opening great opportunities to us, and that's what we'll talk about for the rest of the morning, but there is no doubt that this association deserves a lot of credit for having the courage to do something that a lot of other associations and companies and organizations haven't been able to do quite as rapidly as we have. And that is have the courage to adapt and change, as the chairman said. So thank you for your support in that critical decision.

What about our current health? If MOAA had an annual checkup from a doctor, I think this is what the doctor would say after looking at all the lab reports and tests once they got those back. Most of you have heard the chairman talk about the importance of membership. Those last two numbers that you see up there are extraordinarily important to us. They make us pretty unique in the association business. They make us have the one-two punch that we need to keep that powerful voice that the chairman alluded to. What about our total membership? The chairman mentioned 360,000. We're the fourth-largest [military] association in the country. There are three veterans’ associations larger than us, the American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars, and Disabled Veterans, but of all the military service organizations, we are the largest by far.

So that gives us a lot of clout. And you see one of the things that makes us as large as we are is, of course, our auxiliaries. The chairman alluded to the point that the board saw fit that to better represent and serve all of our auxiliaries, who make up about 18 percent of our organization, we formed the Chairman's Advisory Commission, and the auxiliary team has done a terrific job of helping us to gain additional insight on how we can serve this important part of our membership.

What about the MOAA at a glance as far as our membership? You can see the big advantage that we have is that we're joint. If you look on the left, you can see that we're still primarily retired folks and former officers, but that will gradually change, but our mission will never change. We'll have to keep a No. 1 eye on serving our retired members and their families and their survivors. But if you look to the right, you see one of the other advantages that we have as I alluded to, and that is our jointness. Like the all-volunteer force, it really gives us an advantage over many of the other associations that we're privileged to partner with.

Speaking of new membership and having folks like Captain DeMarco here, if you look at the chart on the left, that is the number of new members that we took in in 2002, the last year that we were TROA. And if you focus on it, you'll see that the pie is about 22,000 folks. We don't list that, but what I'd like you to focus on is that year, in active and Guard and Reserve, you can see we had about 24 percent of our new members that came in as TROA were active duty. Look what happened when we changed our name in 2003. We recruited about the same number, 22,000, but now we're up to 39 percent of our currently serving folks are saying, hey, I want to join this new outfit, MOAA. They seem to represent me. And even better, in 2004, recruited about the same total number, but look again at how the percentage of active duty, Guard, and Reserve has now increased to 47 percent. So I'm reporting to you that the name change has really opened up an opportunity to us, and we'll talk more about that, as time goes on. But we're very, very pleased with the direction we're heading.

How about in comparison to other officer associations? I mentioned that we have this advantage of being all seven services. If you look at this next chart, you can see that some of our very good partners in the Military Coalition of 36 associations, the other officer associations, where we are in size to them. What does this allow us to do? It allows Steve and his team to cochair most of the Military Coalition committees and take the lead on most of the key people issues that impact on the entire military family. It allows us to be the 500-pound gorilla, in a good way, in leading the charge and drafting the legislation that we then work to get through Congress with the rest of the coalition. So the numbers count, as the chairman has said.

The other part of that one-two punch that I mentioned to you, of course, is the cornerstone of what makes us unique and that is our chapter system. You all are the ones, and you've heard me say this as we come out and speak to the chapter and council leadership, that open doors to us at national headquarters, whether it's a [member of the] board of directors, one of the staff members, you're the ones that let those local representatives and senators know that an issue matters.

So we don't have to have political action funds. You're our political action funds. And you're far more effective than political action funds in opening doors and getting issues to be explored. You're also the ones then in the spring, if you're part of the Council or Chapter leadership, that come into Washington and help us Storm the Hill on the issues that are critical to us, and you go to talk to your own congressmen and your own senators and tell them face to face that they better pay attention and focus on the right issues.

So what you do is really, really key to the success that we've had and the success that we're going to continue to have.

And the good news is that, yes, it's hard being a chapter leader or a council president. You all know that, and we're working very closely with you on those things, but as we have had some troubles with some chapters, since we changed our name, we've added six new chapters around the country, and that's a good sign, that we have more chapters and more members' districts that can help us to continue to influence policy and influence the decisions on different legislation, and of course, the chairman and the board of directors approved our most recent chapter that was just added and were given their charter yesterday, the Great Plains Chapter out in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. All of this one-two punch and all of your collective efforts have helped us to achieve these different issues that are up there, and a lot of them are special to each of you.

One of the privileges we get at headquarters is we have a member service center, and we hear when we achieve success on these different issues. We get the calls of gratitude from members who thought that they would always have to pay for their disability by giving up some of their retirement pay. I'll never forget one of the calls, and some of you remember me talking about this in the past, when I first took over, I felt that we should listen to you all in the member call center, and so I try and devote about an hour a week to taking calls. Sometimes I listen more than that; sometimes less.

But one of the very first calls I took when I first took over in 2003 was from a widow in Florida, and she was calling to change her address, and after we talked about the situation and how she was doing, she said that she was really calling to change her address because she had met with the local chapter personal affairs officer and her own daughter that lived in the area, and they had concluded that she no longer could afford her house, and she said to me, you know, “Admiral, I'm very proud of my husband John, and that was his name. He was a life member, and he's allowed me to inherit that membership and stay connected. And I love him dearly for doing that, but I am so glad that he is not here to see what has happened to my lifestyle, because you and I know that I only get 35 percent of his retired pay. He thought I was going to get 55 percent.”

Well, ladies and gentlemen, as you know, that was our major victory last year. We will no longer have any widows calling up and saying that they feel devalued and they resent the tax on their service and their spouse's service. Thanks to you all, this month, the month of November, 250,000 widows got their first 5 percent increment getting back up to that 55 percent. So you've made that difference. Never doubt that, and please convey that to all the members that you're doing that. [Applause.]

Now, the chairman talked about our mission and our vision, and this is a pretty busy slide. All I would want to convey to you that we know that the vision of being the professional association for every military officer at every stage of life and career is a real challenge, but the chairman talked about those four pillars below it: advocacy, the things that we're doing there.

In the information area, we're trying to raise the bar in that area. We have our award-winning magazines that keep you informed. We have the Member Service Center. We put out a lot of individual pamphlets. In your December issue of the award-winning Military Officer magazine, you will get some intellectual property from the Military Officers Association that I don't know of any other association that's going to provide to their members. And this is "Navigating the TRICARE Pharmacy Program." That will be in your December issue and we're not giving this away. If you're not a member, you have to pay for it. But you'll all get it in your membership. This is the type of information that we think, because of the expertise in the staff and the board, that we can provide for you all to help you navigate your benefits and understand them better. So those are the types of things we're doing under the information pillar.

And the enduring values, what we mean by that is what I addressed at the top. We have hired a bunch of officers to help better serve those currently serving, and one of the things we want to do is have professional forums, leadership symposiums, ethics symposiums, where they get the chance to talk and share, and so we think the military really should be the leaders in talking about leadership and ethics, not our businesses or our corporations. All you have to do is read the headlines to see where folks ought to be looking for enduring values, and so we're building I think, some things there that are going to be very meaningful and very helpful to all of our members.

And then finally in the products and services, you know the world-class products that we have, but some of the things are truly unique, and we'll talk about those. Our job transition program, our benefits information programs. Captain DeMarco talked about something we're extraordinarily proud of, our scholarship program. We're helping 1,400 folks like the captain right now this year in our scholarship program because of your generosity. [Applause.]

So this is our vision, and this is how we're going to stay on top and continue to deliver value to all of you. The chairman talked about our strategic plan. All I want to say is we are truly blessed to have the 36 [members of the] board of directors and the chairman that we have. They have helped us immeasurably. They were not always part of the strategic plan, but the board felt that they needed to be, and it has really enriched our plan. Because of the breadth and experience that the board of directors brings to the job, they've helped give us broader insight on some of the demographics and things that we need to do to adapt, as the chairman said.

So we're very pleased for the strategic plan. It's going to start, like any great team, dealing from our strengths, and those strengths I've already alluded to some of them in our pillars. That's basically the key to our strategic plan. The one thing that when you talk about strategic plans, folks get nervous because they know a strategic plan is usually for three to five years. Let me assure you, the board, the staff, have a real sense of urgency about the issues that we're working, not only providing service to you, whether it's a member service call, where Nan O'Leary and her team, you get a human voice when you call in, and you get a quick answer or a promise that we'll get right back to you. If you send an e-mail, you get a response. Lots of folks in Washington, lots of senior officers, pay us the ultimate compliment. They don't call anywhere else. When they really want toget an answer, they call MOAA. And so let me assure you that we do have a sense of urgency, because we know as we go out and meet all of you, there are lots of folks that can't wait for that next piece of legislation to pass. They really need that improvement, whether it's in a medical area or survivor area or an active duty area, they need help now, and so we have that sense of urgency.

I'm not going to talk about the issues that Colonel Strobridge is going to talk about as far as what is on our plate and what we're going to discuss. But I want to give you one example, and that is again in the survivor benefit area. This is a picture that you can all see up there of Jennifer McCollum, and her son Daniel, and her husband whom she lost over in Afghanistan. This picture, because of Jennifer's courage, has allowed us to put a face and a story behind what we're trying to work on this year. The 55,000 widows in this country are counting on somebody to speak up for them and stop taxing them by having them give up their spouse's survivor benefit pay for that amount that they receive in DIC. And so we know every day, [because] there are folks like Jennifer and the 55,000 that she represents, that we have got to have a sense of urgency in everything that we do. And I want to take a minute right now to honor and thank Jennifer for having the courage to help us put a face on this critical issue. Jennifer, would you mind standing up for one second? [Applause.]

Thank you. We all salute Jennifer. It's very hard to get someone to step forward, and it's very hard to testify before Congress, but Jennifer has done all of those things on her behalf and on behalf of the 55,000 that we're trying to fight for. So let me assure you, all of us feel privileged to represent these 55,000 folks in what we're trying to do, and we have that same sense of urgency about every issue. We're not always successful, but we know how important it to each and all of you and the folks that you represent.

The chairman talked about the fact that we're wondering about priorities, and I want to just take a second to tell you what your board of directors and what all of us are talking about when we go up on Capitol Hill, when we talk to the press, when we come out and talk to your chapters and your councils and the leadership team. And that is there's four facts the way we see things in the country today:

No. 1, we're at war; No. 2, as the chairman said, less than 1 percent of the folks are waging this war on behalf of the other 99 percent of us. Senator Byrd from West Virginia said it on the floor a couple weeks ago: This nation is not at war; our military is at war. Because of those two facts, you all know and we know that our all-volunteer force is terribly stressed. Families, whether they're active, Guard, or Reserve, do not have enough time with their servicemember. Folks are going overseas for 12 or 18 months, coming home, thinking they're going to be home two or three years, and they're headed back over in nine months or 13 months for another 12 months, whether they're Guard or Reserve or active.

Employers are wondering for the Guard and Reserve, if they are working permanently for Uncle Sam or they're working for them? Are they citizen soldiers or soldier citizens? And right now most of our men and women in uniform are soldier citizens whether they're active, Guard or Reserve. And that is impacting on recruiting and retention. We have a 20 percent shortfall in Guard and Reserve recruiting. That's over 20,000 Guard and Reserve that were not recruited that were needed this year. The Army fell short by the largest amount since the 1970s in meeting their goal. So there is no question that the all-volunteer force is stressed, and simply we all know that the one weapon system that has never let this country down are our men and women in uniform. But what we're saying in a very respectful but firm manner is that we believe our leadership, because they are not aligned on these four facts, are letting our men and women and their families down, and we're being very vocal in talking about that. [Applause.]

Now, this is not rhetoric and you see the cause, example one. Those of you that have been following the Senate Defense Authorization bill, the House passed their bill in the early springtime. Six months later the Senate, after great prodding, has finally gotten around to passing a Senate Defense Authorization bill. Why is this such a shame? Because we should have had this bill back in the springtime, so that some of the benefits that would accrue to the military, like improved recruiting bonuses and additional programs that will help our recruiters that are out there working hard, whether they're Guard or Reserve or permanent Army, in trying to get young men and women to consider what the opportunities are in the service.

They should have had these things the first of October when the fiscal year started.

But because the Senate has dawdled and dawdled and dawdled, we don't even have a conference between the House and Senate bill where we could get these programs out to our men and women that need them to make our all-volunteer force whole again. And so we're desperately trying to get them to focus on this issue and get a conference quickly so that the president can sign this bill and get it out. That's just one example.

The chairman alluded to our defense budget, and here again for the last 65 years in our country, in the years that we have been at peace, the years that we have been at peace, this country has averaged 5.7 percent of its gross domestic product on defense in peacetime years. Look at what we're spending. We're at war. We're not even spending the average peacetime budget, and so this is why we have all these harmful statements coming out of the Department of Defense and some out of the Congress about we can't afford bullets and people. We can't afford active duty personnel and taking care of the commitments we've made to retirees or veterans. We can't provide the health care we need. It's because this country has not got its priorities on spending right, as the chairman alluded to.

And so we're being very forceful in [saying], don't talk to us about billions of dollars; talk to us about what percent of this nation's wealth are we spending on its No. 1 priority and the people who are defending this country? And the question isn't how many fewer people have been wounded or injured in this war than other wars? The real question is how many of the wounded or killed could have been prevented if we were spending properly on that group that is defending this country? [Applause.]

And so that's the key. Quickly, a couple of other quick examples. Guard and Reserve, we are wearing our Guard and Reserve out, yet the Pentagon has recommended to the president and told the Congress that if they dare so much as to improve Guard and Reserve health care, they're going to recommend that the president veto that bill. Now, is that misaligned priorities or misaligned priorities?

We're pretty confident we're going to get something thanks to the work of the coalition and Steve and his great team, and he'll talk more about that. Who else would say we need a moratorium on people and compensation programs? We're not asking that 1 percent that is bearing the entire burden of the war to have a moratorium on their sacrifice and their dedication. And then finally, priorities, priorities, priorities. Why would you cut a defense budget that is already underfunded and not even a good peacetime budget? So that's why we say what we're saying. We're saying it to the press. We're saying it to the Congress. We're saying it to the administration. We're saying it to the Defense Department, both our civilians and active leaderships, in a respectful but firm manner.

Today's legislative climate. We've talked about this with our board of directors, and the guidance that they have given us, of course, is we want to stay on the offense as we have always done -- proposing legislation, fixing inequities, those types of things. But because of the climate in Washington and this lack of alignment on the right things, you all have seen the proposals. You have seen some of the references that I've alluded to about, gee, can we afford to pay for our veterans’ hospitals? Can we really fix this inequity on widows and our "greatest generation"? Asking questions that they shouldn't be asking. They should be trying to help us solve those things.

But, because of the language, we know that there's going to be an assault on the gains that we have made and we think it will start in 2007 particularly in the medical areas. More copayments, fees, higher deductibles, and so Steve and the team have advised us all to keep our powder dry. We're keeping our powder dry, but we know that we're going to have to be on the defensive to repel some of these proposals.

But as I have assured the board, think of defense like a great football team. Not somebody playing a prevent defense. This is a team that is going to try and shut down that rhetoric. In three plays make them punt so that we can get back on the offense and talk about the things that really need to be done for this country. So I assure you we're going to stay on the offensive even when we're on the defense. [Applause.]

Now, I want to move on to some of the pillars that we talked about and some of the exciting things that the chairman and the board have asked me to talk about in the membership area, but I want to start by reminding you that we know what you know. That the power of MOAA is our people and the leadership that's in this room that we all represent, the 360,000 of us that are out there.

But we have unique experts on our staff and we are going to stick also to the foundations that have made us successful. Our intellectual capital that relies on the staff, and I've just pictured two of the groups up here, our Benefits Information Department -- some of the firsts that they are doing, to provide not only the retired activity day presentations, that they go all around the country providing to our members and to all veterans and all service personnel and their families and survivors. But we're starting a lot of new things in the Benefits Information Department, like every department.

One of them is we're having more spouse seminars. We've started bringing in spouses, because we know that we need to better serve our spouses, and so we started to have seminars in that. You'll see us doing more of that. We're starting financial planning seminars because of the expertise we have in Phil Dyer, who is on board our team. And we had our first financial planning seminar at the Women's Memorial earlier this month. You'll be seeing us replicate that because we know all segments of our membership are interested in that.

In the job transition area, Dick Crampton and his team have always been doing this job fair in Washington. It's what I call a signature event, something that no one does better than we do. We bring in 200 employers from around the country at the brand new Washington Convention Center. We open this up to all our men and women in uniform to come, and we always have over 2,000 folks there meeting with the employers as we help them transition. We're going to be replicating that around the country as we go forward, but just to show you the kind of reputation that members of our staff have, the Air Force unfortunately is going to have to cut about 2,000 officers, young officers, captains and first lieutenants. The Air Force DESPER, who is in charge of all personnel for the Air Force, sent me a personal letter asking that our job transition team try and go around to the different Air Force bases and help these young folks transition.

So here's the Air Force going to the Military Officers Association among several associations and saying, we know you have this expertise; can you please help out? And, of course, our team was already on to this working with some of the bases and some of the groups that will be helping these young folks transition. So that's the kind of foundation that we have to build from, as we now are subtly changing our direction.

And the key here, when you look at those words of "service advocacy" and "information" is outreach. What are we doing now to let people know about our new name and our new brand, and that's what I would like to talk about because it is a huge effort undertaken by all of the board of directors, our staff and many of you here in the audience.

These are the areas that I'd like to expand on, and talking of opening doors, I hope you can see some of the slides there. I hope you can't see the fear on my face in that one up in the upper left-hand corner. That's me waving the green flag up at Dover a couple months ago to start the 500 Race up there, NASCAR. I was grabbing on to that rail with my dear life and hoping that as the cars were going 200 miles under me, that I wouldn't fall or the thing wouldn't collapse, but we got our name out in front of 150,000 folks that day through various ceremonies — and if you've never been to a NASCAR, you ought to go. It's middle America. It's what this country is all about, and are they proud of our men and women in service.

Speaking of that, because of our partnership, which you'll hear about, with the other service academies, I was also privileged to go up and speak at West Point to their Association of Graduates and they had all of their councils up there, committees up there, much like our chapters -- they call them societies -- plus their class leaders, and we got to talk to them about the importance of MOAA, what they could do to help us, not only promote service academies, but taking care of these young men and women when they go on out into the service like Captain DeMarco, to make sure that there are adequate personnel and there is adequate funding.

And so we're getting great synergy out of these partnerships and these events. The others that we're replicating, I talked to you about the financial seminar. You see Bud Schneeweis talking to the young lady at our Women's Memorial program, and then what we do many, many of now are the exhibits. And you have Jess Ramirez with a family out in Hawaii, and this is at a NGAUS convention, where we set up a table, and we do this around the country, and Jess and Laura DeSimio and some of the others that went on that for the staff signed up over 200 new members at that particular exhibit. That's what we're doing around the country to get our brand out in the outreach area.

In the awards area, to let folks know that we appreciate their service, we are giving out awards, and you see in the top left-hand corner there [a member] of our board of directors, Scott Leftwich, giving out the AMSUS award in Nashville just last week to General Young who is here at Wilford Hall commanding, and you see our chairman with our great champion Mary Landrieu and the other top at our Marix Award, which is a signature event, where we thank those members of the legislature that really do have their priorities right and are champions for our military. The chairman awarded Mary Landrieu one of our Marix awards there.

In the bottom corner, you see ESGR, that's Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve. We have signed a memorandum of understanding to try and support Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve. They help ensure that our men and women that go overseas get their jobs back and that the employers understand the benefits and rights of our Guard and Reserve. And so they are coming out to the different chapters and councils and asking us to help volunteer for those events.

General Hollingsworth, who is the head of Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve, is in the picture there with me as I present MOAA honoring the first Ombudsman of the Year for Employer Support of Guard and Reserve. This is a lawyer, Susan Perrin, who started out as a Navy spouse, got her law degree, her and her husband in the Houston area, and she is helping folks in the Houston area that come back keep their jobs and help employers understand how they can better support the Guard and Reserve. We were there in front of the entire Employer Support of Guard and Reserve leadership from all their states and territories, the only ones there recognizing a person for their contribution, so I think we're walking the talk and trying to back up this thing of letting folks know we want to be part of them and we want to do all we can to help them.

And then finally, you see John Plehal and Jim Young from our staff at Sheppard Air Force Base giving out some awards to some young medical students and this was an idea that came from you all. John Biggerstaff, who is here -- John, are you here? Stand up. John gave us that idea, ladies and gentlemen. So, as the chairman said, speak up. [Applause.]

Now, in addition to giving out awards, we're receiving awards, and I want to let you know that we are getting recognized. Our Today's Officer magazine, our Military Officers magazine, our Web site, are continuing under Warren Lacy's leadership to get the kind of awards that they deserve for keeping all of us informed and on top of the situation.

You also see something we're extraordinarily proud of and that's one of our chapters, our Tampa Chapter. We have some representatives from Florida here. The Tampa Chapter won the Newman's Award this year that was presented in the Hall of Heroes in the Pentagon, and it was an appropriate place for them to get Paul Newman's Award for doing the most for helping our men and women and their families that are in uniform. And what the Tampa Chapter has done is coordinate with the VA Hospital down in Tampa that works with those young men and women that come back injured and wounded, and they particularly try and help the families that go to Tampa to help them rehabilitate from their spinal cord injuries or severe wounds. And they provide resources to the family, whether it's a rental car, meals, helping with housing. This Tampa Chapter competed against 200 other people that were putting in for the award and they got the top prize, $10,000, and of course what they did was plow that $10,000 back in to giving back to people. So are we proud of the Tampa Chapter and many of you do things like that. [Applause.]

And I would just assure you that the staff on its own part is trying to do what you all do in your communities and be good citizens and you have a picture of some of our folks. Suzanne Walker is getting an award from the local Alexandria ALIVE Campaign, which is affiliated with all the churches in the community, for what we've done to contribute to ALIVE. So we're trying to keep up with you, but it's a tough act.

Partnering. I talked about that. What is partnering about? It's really about the fact that if you want to recommend somebody to another association, that's the best kind of advertising you can get, particularly if you're a trusted friend. So we have a world-class service, our advocacy, what we do for men and women and their families and their survivors, and lots of folks want to be part of that. But they're not allowed to advocate. They're not allowed to lobby, and so we go out to associations that we think have the right kind of mission, the right kind of values, and we say we'd like to find a way to partner with you and find some win-win situations. And whether it's the Military Chaplains Association that we're partnering with and that are here today or some of these groups that are up here including the Army.

As you know, last year, we signed a memorandum of understanding with the Army, because recruiting for the all volunteer force isn't just the Army's job; it's all of our jobs. And so our chapters and councils have really pitched in to help Army recruiters in their area get to know who the influencers are, the coaches, the mayors, the athletic directors, the folks that deal with young men and women, so that they can find out about what the opportunities are in the service. So we've partnered with the Army to walk the talk with them as well, but giving you one of the commercial partnerships that we have, I would just call to your attention the one at the top, AFBA, Armed Forces Benefit Association. They started out providing insurance because during the wars, as you all know, it was tough getting insurance without a war clause.

And so we met with their leader, General Ed Eberhart, and said we have a lot in common; how can we partner? And we just reported to the board, General Eberhart reported to his several hundred thousand members that they wanted to be part of us because of our world-class advocacy, fighting on behalf of all of our men and women. And, in return, we have started to work staff-to-staff and one of the things General Eberhart said was, look, you all have over 100,000 folks with medical supplements. We have about 10,000. We think we'll give you our business in that area, and so they just gave us 5,000 folks that are members of their association and asked us to take on that business because of the way they know that we can deliver like we deliver for many of you in the medical supplement area.

Well, guess what? Not only does that bring in revenue, but we're going to get 3,400 new members that were not part of our association. We're going to give them a one-year's free membership that is going to be paid by folks that we team with on this deal, and so that's a win-win for us. It's a win-win for AFBA to get the new membership and the new business, and on top of that, Warren Lacy informs me that because of their world-class mutual funds, which we're interested in letting you know about, and because of the value system that they have, they're going to take an ad in the back of our magazine for the next 12 months that will bring in $95,000 to Warren so that they can provide the magazine to you at the cost they do. So that's what partnerships are about. That's how we're turning them to our advantage, and there's nothing better than having General Eberhart, as he did in this quarterly memo, say to everybody we think MOAA is an outstanding organization that does advocacy better than anybody else. We want to partner with them. We recommend you consider membership if you're not already a member. So that's the advantage of partnering and that's what we're continuing to do successfully with all of these associations that you see listed up there.

Now, what about new ideas? You're all familiar with the Give Me 10! This is where whenever we really need something we go to our foundation -- that's our chapters and councils -- and say can you help us and maybe we can help you to invigorate your membership? And so we've got a Give Me 10! Program, and most of the chapters -- in fact, I think almost every chapter in Texas is part of this - -trying to find 10 new members for national, and of course then we give you $10 for each of those members that you find that goes into your treasury. It's a lot more complicated than that, but it's off and running. We're very pleased with the initial success, and we think we're going to deliver really well in that area.

In fact, I didn't cover it, but the really encouraging thing about membership is I mentioned to you that we've recruited for the last three years about 22,000 new members, but the new trend has been in the active duty, Guard and Reserve, that it's going up, up and up. Well, guess what else is going to go up this year? Instead of recruiting 22,000 new members, we set a goal of 27,000 new members for this year, 5,000 more than the last three years. We're going to go through that. We're probably going to be close to 30,000 members because of efforts like the Give Me 10! Program. So thank you to all of you that are involved out there. We're counting on you as always to come through for us.

One of the other new ideas, while I was out in Colorado Springs talking to some chapters out there, the Air Force Academy came into Annapolis to play Navy in football, and our Military Officers Association, because we have a partnership with all the service academies had a tailgate for the Air Force. It was raining. We were lucky, 1,200 folks showed up at our tent and found out more about MOAA. [Laughter.]

A lot of folks signed up. A lot of folks signed up for that. That's the type of branding thing. Those are the types of new ideas that we have. In addition, you can see we're going to be opening a new office in the Pentagon. There are over 13,000 officers in the Pentagon, and thousands that come through every week. We think we can listen better to them by being right there where they work on a day-to-day basis and we can serve them better, and so we're opening an office in the Pentagon here by the end of the year.

And then finally, you see in the bottom corner there, the Army Ten Miler. Those of you that aren't familiar, the Army sponsors an Army Ten Miler in Washington, D.C. It's a beautiful downtown run throughout the Washington sights. They had over 20,000 young men and women come around the country, some not so young. MOAA sponsored a team this year. We had over 70 members fly in from around the country and some of us on the staff were also out there, and you can recognize some of us in the picture. Some of us look a little more tired than the others. We had a good reason to be more tired. Oh, by the way, this Army Ten Miler because of security turned into an 11-and-a-half mile run. [Laughter.]

So we all got our money's worth. We got to run an extra mile and a half, but we represented you well, and I think you can see in the booths there we were positioned with two booths to where lots of folks came by and said, hey, we're glad to see you here, and they signed up for membership. We gave them some of our literature, and it's a good way of letting folks know that we're serving the entire military community.

This outreach all pays off. We're still going, but you can see what it's meant in new members, all these outreach efforts that are separate and distinct from the other things that we've done in the past. And so we're very, very encouraged, and a lot of these folks, as I've mentioned, are currently serving folks. And so we will have this continuity of leadership that we're building to as we changed our name. And why do we want it? Obviously. The one powerful voice. I talked about Storming the Hill. This is a picture of what we did last spring in getting the Survivor Benefit legislation through. How many of you have Stormed the Hill in this room? Raise your hand. [Show of hands.]
Thank you all for your leadership. It really makes a difference; doesn't it? [Applause.] I want to talk a little bit how we get the word out and you have the magazines on your table there. But electronic means of getting the word out, as you know, is critical. Seventy-five percent of our members use the computer. We get Legislative Alerts out. We have a News Exchange now that goes out once a month that combines all the news that we think you need to know or -- it's every two weeks, I'm sorry -- so that you don't get inundated, but you get the latest-breaking news before anybody else gets it.

And then we have our award-winning Web site as well, and this continues to grow. This is the way young folks get their news. This is the way some of us that are not so young even read the newspaper. And we have just revamped our Web site. We think it's right on the leading edge. We also get our word out through the press and these are just some of the groups that we have been featured in in the last year.

Because of the experts and the intellectual capital we have on the staff and the board of directors, we get folks that are asked to go to press conferences like General Boddie representing us at the press conference with the AMA and making sure that they don't try to cut provider payments for Medicare and TRICARE. And we get folks asking Colonel Strobridge to talk on an issue or some of our other experts and so we help shape opinion and form opinion through being active in the press because we have credible resources that are bipartisan and tell it like it is.

And then, of course, as the chairman alluded to, we get listened to because of you all. Folks like to get elected, and when they know that you represent 360,000 members, you get invited on Air Force One like Colonel Strobridge, or you get invited to the Oval Office like I did prior to the vote on SBP where I was able to take 15 minutes to tell the president why he needed to support the Survivor Benefit Plan, and because of the collective efforts of all of us and all those in the pictures that you see with the chairman then giving the award to Senator Landrieu, they listened to our champions and we were able to deliver.

So we have one powerful voice, but we know, as the chairman alluded to very directly, they've tasked us to make sure that we up our ability to listen to you all and find new opportunities and new ways to listen so that we can take advantage of ideas, ideas like John Biggerstaff gave us and many of you have given us, whether it's in the legislature area or the service area. And we're doing it through our advisory committees. We've already recognized them. They are a tremendous resource to us.

Our Member Service Center and all the other features, whether it's surveys in our magazine or individual phone calls that we're making now to members. We have some challenges. How are we going to keep people once they join? This is one of the things we're trying to get insight into, and you'll hear more about in the months ahead. We also listen to our veterans. Judy and I were down at the MOAA Convention for Georgia in Augusta and had the privilege of going by and talking to some of our veterans at the War Memorial Home there. They call it the Blue Goose. What wonderful folks, and we were able to go back the very next week and talk to the chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee of why it's so important that we support our veterans’ homes that are state run, not just our VA program. So we're listening.

You see a young Air Force test pilot that's an acquisition specialist who attended our recent financial seminar at the Women's Memorial. These are the types of opportunities we're seeking to raise the bar and getting out and finding ways to listen better to you. Looking ahead, we're really excited about our annual meeting next year in Washington, [November] 16th to the 18th. As I talked to you a little about, we're going to add in a professional symposium to try and attract all of the young currently serving folks to come aboard for the annual meeting and get some good data and share some data with us. And we're also going to have another second job fair because that's one of our strengths, and that's what our members want us to do, is help them as they transition. So put that down on your calendar and hope you'll all be here for our annual meeting next year. It should be an exciting time and another signature event for MOAA.

In the five years that are coming, we think we'll even be stronger and staying on course to achieve what you see up there in words. How we're going to get there, I've already talked about. We're going to continue to broaden and expand our outreach. We know that there are some chapters that need some assistance, and we're working hard through our Council and Chapter Affairs team, the broad expertise we have there with Chris Giaimo and Jim Pauls, as well. You'll see some more things coming, some new ideas coming for Chapter and Council Affairs. We've added a lot of support and we want to do more because that's what you all are telling us and you want to be part of that solution. A lot of you know how to help a chapter that may need some assistance in a particular area. So we'll be working there.

We'll work on the partnerships and, of course, we're going to continue to use the resources that the board has given us and leverage the technology that allows us to be, I think, the most agile organization in Washington. When we can send out an e-mail alert and 12 hours later get 13,500 e-mails back on somebody's desk, that's being pretty doggone agile. And so we'll continue to do that. But, as the chairman said, we can't do it without all of you.

We're preaching to the choir here with you all, but I just want to conclude by saying you're servant leaders; we're servant leaders. That's all about expecting to give more than we receive. That's why we're in the business that we're in. That's why you all have chosen to stay in the arena by being here this morning, by being part of a chapter, by being part of the council or being a national member. You want to continue to give to those that you served with, that you had the privilege to serve with, and I can assure you that all of us on the board, all of us on the staff, continue to come away from these meetings with you all inspired by your leadership, your dedication and your example. We're privileged and proud to serve you, and we're looking forward to more dialogue with you. Mr. Chairman, this concludes my report. [Applause.]

GENERAL HENDRIX: Thank you. Okay. Thanks to Norb Ryan for the great and hardworking and inspiring leadership. I want to turn it over now to our CFO, Colonel Glenn Zauber. Glenn.

[back to top]

4. Chief Financial Officer’s Report

COLONEL ZAUBER: Thank you, sir. Our audit firm Johnson Lambert & Co. prepared MOAA's financial statements for the year 2004. Highlights from the financial statements were published in the October issue of Military Officer magazine. As General Hendrix said earlier, MOAA's finances continue to be in excellent shape, and our auditors confirm that with their audited financial statements for 2004. They gave us a clean bill of health, an unqualified opinion, which in auditor-speak means an excellent report. This is in large measure a result of careful stewardship by two of your board committees, the Finance Committee chaired by General Michael P.C. Carns, USAF, retired, and the Investment Committee chaired by Rear Admiral Frank Gallo, U.S. Navy, retired.

Let me give you some of the highlights from the 2004 financial statement. Expenses were $19.6 million. Net assets increased by $6.5 million. We have reserves of almost $80 million. The Scholarship Fund had another banner year. We received $3.4 million in contributions and bequests and loan repayments of $2.8 million. This allowed us to award more than $5.5 million in scholarship grants and zero-interest loans for about 1,400 students. In summary, your board of directors, in particular the Finance and Investment committees, has ensured, financially speaking, that MOAA is well-financed. Now, I'd like to introduce Colonel Steve Strobridge, Director of Government Relations. [Applause.]

[back to top]

5. Government Relations Report

COLONEL STROBRIDGE: Thanks, Glenn. Normally my presentation at the Annual Meeting sums up our legislative accomplishments for the year. Unfortunately, as Admiral Ryan said, Congress has kind of dragged its feet on defense issues this year. They're only now getting serious about finishing up the Defense Authorization Act, which is the vehicle that we use to get virtually all of our major military legislative issues for the year. As he said, the House passed its version back in May. The Senate just passed its version this week. Normally we'd expect them to take another month or so to work out their differences, and get a final bill.

So at this point, I can't give you a whole lot of final answers, but I think it is worth summing up what we have accomplished this year, and what's still on the table at this point. The biggest victories I think this year so far have been in the VA health care area. This spring MOAA and many other associations joined forces to defeat a proposal to charge enrollment fees and jack up drug copayments for hundreds of thousands of U.S. veterans. We also made some important progress when the administration finally acknowledged what association leaders have been saying for months, that the VA health care budget has been underfunded by more than a billion dollars a year for both 2005 and 2006. Congress finally found the money to make up that shortfall, but they're a lot more skeptical I think of the VA budgeting process now, and they're asking a lot more questions, and that's only good and only can help our efforts to make sure that today's veterans and veterans of prior conflicts get the care and support that they need.

Admiral Ryan also mentioned that 250,000 military survivors saw the first concrete results of our SBP victory in their November SBP checks when the minimum SBP annuity rose to 40 percent of covered retired pay, up from 35 percent. Next April, they'll see the next 5 percent increment, and then for the next two years after that until we get it back to a flat 55 percent, finally.

And we retirees also just got a reminder of how important it is to have inflation-protected retired pay and our cost of living adjustments. Inflation jumped 4.1 percent this year, and what that means is retired members and survivors and disabled veterans are going to see a 4.1 percent increase in their checks on January 1. You know with inflation being so low, you know, sometimes you don't see that much in the cost of living adjustment, but when inflation perks back up, sometimes you realize the real value of that protection.

We also made some important progress in upgrading Survivor Benefits aside from last year's effort, particularly for the survivors of people who are killed on active duty. We raised the minimum or the maximum government life insurance coverage to $400,000. We raised the maximum death gratuity to $100,000.

In addition, there's several issues in both the House and Senate versions of that defense bill that I mentioned that are included in both. So we can talk about them. Even though the bill isn't final, we can put them in the win column. And those include a 3.1 percent pay raise for all of our active duty, Guard and Reserve troops, and that's half a percent larger than the average American's pay raise, which is an issue that we got Congress to agree to several years ago, an increase of at least 10,000 in the Army's authorized force levels and maybe 20,000 if Congress agrees to the Senate version of the Defense bill which we think is essential to ease deployment stresses on Army families.

Another provision will pay full housing allowances to Guard and Reserve members who are mobilized for more than 30 days. We've been pushing that for several years. We finally got it in both the House and Senate bills. Under current law, that allowance is denied for almost the first five months that Guard and Reserve members are activated, which is just hard to believe, but that's one of the inequities that we've been working hard to fix. And that's just one way that we need to do better by the Guard and Reserve troops who are saving the country's bacon in the war on terrorism.

As for what's still on the table, we won some important provisions in the Senate version of the Defense Authorization bill that passed this week, and that brought to fruition a lot of the efforts that people in this room and people around the country have been working on for the last year. But that is just the first step. Basically it keeps us alive. It keeps us in the game. It's not the end. We still have a big challenge over the next month to convince the House to agree to those provisions, and some of those include: Full concurrent receipt for disabled retirees who are rated unemployable by the VA; immediate implementation of that 30 year paid-up SBP coverage instead of making our "Greatest Generation" retirees wait until 2008; an end to the deduction of VA survivor benefits from SBP annuities for survivors of members who are killed on Active Duty; and permanent health coverage for all drilling Guard and Reserve members, which is another issue that the Admiral spoke about.

We still also have a major fight to reverse projected cuts in Medicare and TRICARE payments to doctors. We just can't afford to have more doctors refusing to take active duty, Guard and Reserve, and retired members and their survivors, all members of the military community, and there again the Senate is with us, but we still have to convince the House.

Now, can we win all of those? It's a tall order when Congress is focused so much on reducing the deficit. That's for sure, but I also think that Congress appreciates along with the rest of America just who is doing most of the sacrificing and who has done most of the sacrificing in the past in protecting our country's freedoms. I think there is nobody in the country that appreciates that more than Congress right now. Sometimes it doesn't appreciate it, but believe me we've got a lot of friends in Congress who are paying a lot of attention to that. I think they also appreciate more and more that we still need positive action to sustain the all-volunteer force in the face of the current challenges and to maintain a strong national defense capability for the long term.

So we're optimistic about our chances. But we can't afford to take anything for granted. The only way that we're going to get these things done is to keep pressure on our legislators from this moment on, right through the end of the year and beyond, and I do hope that every single one of you will stick with us in that important fight because we're going to need you and we're going to need a lot of others. We're going to need your friends and your relatives and everybody else you know, and we've only got about two or three more weeks to make our case this year.

So when you get home, I hope you'll contact your legislators, either via MOAA's Web site -- and we've got an alert that's prominently featured there -- or through our toll free Capitol Hill hot line, we'll let you call your legislators on MOAA's dime, and I'd like to give you that toll-free number. I'll give it to you a couple of times. The number is (866) 272-6622. If you didn't get it, I'll repeat it again in a minute. Just ask the Capitol operator to put you through to your legislator's office, and then tell that legislator staffer who answers the phone that you want your legislator to keep the Senate-passed provisions on SBP, concurrent receipt, and Guard and Reserve health care in the Defense Authorization bill. You need the Senate provisions on those three issues.

Now, one more time, that toll free number is (866) 272-6622. I appreciate your strong support. That's the only way that we've gotten all those victories over these recent years that the admiral put up there, but we're going to need that continued support. We can't be complacent, and hopefully with your help we'll come up a winner on these issues and get our military widows and disabled retirees and our Guard and Reserve families and our active duty Army families and the other services as well the support they need and deserve. So that concludes my report. Thank you very much. [Applause.]

GENERAL HENDRIX: Well, the net-net of all that is you’ve got a great organization. Times they are changing; we got to adapt to them; we need your support. Call your congressmen and -women and let them know how you feel about these things, and I would also say that I think that you can call them, but if you're saying one thing, and I'm saying another, and she's saying something different, we're not going to be very effective. So follow the lead that we get. Read our magazines and stay tuned up on the Internet, and we'll all be effective in getting what we need done. But a great organization and one of the greatest pleasures from my point of view is the people in this organization. I mean what's good about it is we have good people, and we have a good cause, and we're willing to work hard for it, and that's what makes us a great organization.

Now, you got to see everybody on the platform up here except for one. You got to see him, but you didn't hear from him, and so let me just take a second and introduce and ask to stand Captain Pete Wylie. He's our general counsel, and he doesn't have a report, but he's our symbol of quiet excellence. He does his daily work everyday and works really hard, and he's the brains behind our outfit. So Pete, you want to stand. [Applause.]

[back to top]

6. Chapter and Council Awards

GENERAL HENDRIX: Now we're going to get on with the question and answer portion of the agenda momentarily, but before we do that, I want to bring Colonel Ron Buchert up. Ron has some awards to make. He is the chairman, our board chairman of our board committee for Council and Chapter Affairs, and Ron is going to present some awards to some of our affiliates. Okay. Chris, you're going to come up and do this. Everybody knows Chris Giaimo, and so Chris is going to do the announcements, I guess.

COLONEL GIAIMO: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Each year we have a Chapter Excellence Award competition among our 415 chapters. This year 97 chapters applied for an award. Of those, 71 chapters won either what we call a Five Star Award, which represents the very, very best, or a Four Star Award. Most of those people or chapters that won the award will receive them in person from either a member of the staff, Admiral Ryan, or a member of the board at some future event.

However, there are two chapters here that asked to have their awards presented today. Those two chapters are a representative from the Ark-La-Tex Chapter, Colonel Lees
Broome. The Ark-La-Tex Chapter is one of our very, very largest chapters in the country. It is the third largest we have and, again, Lees, on behalf of the association, and members of your chapter, congratulations for your excellence. [Applause.]

And the winner of the Four Star Award is the Lone Star Chapter. [Applause.] I knew you'd like that. Receiving is Colonel Wes Clark. In closing, for those of you who belong to chapters who did not submit an application for an award, please go back and tell your president, your hierarchy, hey, we got to get into this competition. A total of 71 percent of all chapters that submitted an application won, so your odds are pretty good. Thanks for all your help. [Applause.]

[back to top]

7. Question and Answer Session

GENERAL HENDRIX: Okay. … We're going to go now to the question and answer portion. This is your chance to let us know what your concerns are. I'm just going to ask--we're going to spread some microphones throughout the room here, I think. Yeah, they are out there. Would the microphone people stand up, first, so people can get a general feeling for where they are? Okay. So I ask that if you would like to ask a question or make a comment, that you move to one of the microphones in the aisle, announce your name and rank and service, and then speak loudly so that all of us who have old and banged-up ears from lives of doing the wrong things can understand you and that the recorder can hear you as well.

I'm going to call first on Captain Gary Pollitt, who runs the Military Chaplains Association. He's a member of the Military Coalition, and he has asked for a minute or two to address his fellow MOAA members, and we're pleased to have him here. Captain Pollitt, there you are. [Applause.]

CAPTAIN POLLITT: Sir, we represent one of the fruits of your partnership efforts. Our National Executive Committee has been here the last couple of days, and it has been a watershed event for us. We're 80 years old. Part of that is a result of the assistance of some of your superstars like John Plehal, Steve Strobridge, Pete Wylie, Marv Harris, Bob Norton, Chris Giaimo, and the incredible patience and diligence of Suzanne Walker making it possible. We simply want to say thank you for helping us. We want to say thank you for your tireless advocacy on behalf of our nation's warriors and their families at every stage of life and service and from the numerous religious faith traditions that we represent as individual MOAA members and the Military Chaplains Association of the United States. God bless you. [Applause.]

GENERAL HENDRIX: Okay. I would just remind you of one last thing. We have to be on the way out of here at 11:00 o'clock. So we've got a good 30 minutes here. We can cover a lot of ground. You can probably cover it faster than we did. So the floor is now open for comments or questions, and I have one in the back.

COLONEL GREEN: I just need 30 minutes. [Laughter.]

GENERAL HENDRIX: Okay.

COLONEL GREEN: Roy Green, Colonel, Retired, United States Air Force, San Antonio Chapter. The curse of asking for questions is sometimes they may be preceded by a statement. First, a statement. I don't think Congress is interested in the deficit. I think an embarrassing number of the representatives are interested in embarrassing George Bush. End of statement. [Applause.]

COLONEL GREEN: Democrats don't have to agree with me. [Laughter.]

COLONEL GREEN: A question, and it's a fine one for Admiral Ryan. Of the 2,000 young Air Force officers who are transitioning, how many have chosen to transition to the United States Army?

GENERAL HENDRIX: Norb, you want to answer that.

VICE ADMIRAL RYAN: I would be glad to just frame that for you. As you know from our signing a memorandum of understanding with the Army Recruiting Team, there is a blue to green program, both for the Air Force and Naval officers who may not have an opportunity in their own service to transfer to the Army, and so that is one of the things that is going to be presented to these Air Force officers as they transition is the opportunity, depending on what their specialty is, to go to the Army.

And as you know, right now because of the small size of the Army, the fact that we don't have enough men and women in the Army and that's one of the things we're feverishly advocating for is to grow our Army and our Marine Corps. There are already many men and women in the Air Force and the Navy fulfilling assignments that would normally be assigned to the Army. So there's a very active program of asking those in blue to convert to green if they're leaving the service, whether they're officer or enlisted, and this is going to be one of the things presented to them.

But right now, these folks don't know who they are yet, or they know that they're in a zone to where they might have to leave. They're hoping that enough volunteer to leave so that they don't have to have a board in the Air Force that will actually say, ‘you're the one that has to leave.’ And so what we'll be doing is working with the Air Force to try to make them as viable as possible and aware of this opportunity in the Army.

In fact, Colonel, when I get back, one of the members of our staff, their spouse is in charge of this program in the Pentagon, and they're coming over to visit us so that we're aware on the staff of just how the program works and how we can represent that at these presentations that Dick Crampton and the others in our TOPS program will be undertaking. So good question, and I think we're on top of it, and we're going to be working very closely with the Army and the services to let these young men and women know how valuable they are, and how much we appreciate their service, and that we're there to try and help them with whatever they decide to do with the rest of their lives. [Applause.]

GENERAL HENDRIX: Okay. Another one here.

LIEUTENANT COMMANDER CHARLES: I'm Lieutenant Commander Charles from Lone Star Officers Club in Fort Worth. We have in our efforts to do recruiting for new members, there seems to be some confusion regarding recruiting aboard ARB Fort Worth. I was just wondering what latitude we have as far as contacting individual squadrons, having meetings with all active duty and reserve, and presenting the MOAA recruiting membership?

GENERAL HENDRIX: I'm going to let -- probably that falls in the general counsel area. I'm probably going to let him do it because it reduces down to the question of what we can legally do and not do and what we're allowed to do by the different services. Pete. Yeah. And the question had to do with what we can do on bases? Fair summary?

CAPTAIN WYLIE: There are a couple of DoD directives that govern the extent to which organizations like ours may recruit aboard military installations. One of the constraints on a base commander is that he or she is not allowed under one of the directives to show any favoritism among the various organizations that are looking to present themselves to active duty, Guard, and Reserve folks. That's the first hurdle. And of course the base commander will in all likelihood turn to his or her staff judge advocate for guidance in this area.

Additionally, while organizations like MOAA chapters are allowed to have meetings on board military installations with the permission of the base commander, what you can do once you are aboard is very, very restricted. You can hold a meeting, you can put out literature, but active recruiting is something that you're not likely to be allowed to do by the base commander. It's sort of, frankly, like the military engaging in lobbying. Steve Strobridge and Chris Giaimo and I and some others on the staff, when we were on active duty had tours of duty as what the Army and Air Force called L&L, legislative lobbying, I guess. Well -- liaison. Sorry. Okay. We weren't allowed -- that's precisely my point -- we weren't allowed to call ourselves lobbyists. We were there to provide information to the Congress. Well, of course, we were lobbying. That's what we were paid to do. It's just a different word, same thing.

So what you can do is offer information to men and women aboard the installation, but active recruiting is something that really you may not do. The base commander is not going to let you do that. So this becomes a question of how do you go about getting your name, your brand, if you will, before those folks, and frankly the best thing you can do is to use available media on base newspapers, things like that, to let folks know where they can get information about your organization, but if you're going to hold recruiting meetings, things like this, you're in all likelihood going to be told that you have to do them off base.

And this is not, this is one of the areas where the base commander has a little bit of discretion but not much, and of course relying on the lawyers, the lawyer's job, of course, is to keep the base commander out of trouble. So the staff judge advocate is probably going to tell you, no, sorry, you can't do that, you're going to have to do anything of a recruiting nature off base.

VICE ADMIRAL RYAN: One quick addition to that. This doesn't mean that the men and women in uniform that are in charge of the bases or the facilities aren't very supportive of us. Because we are trying to be servant leaders, help with the recruiting business, help with the business of supporting the Employer Support of Guard and Reserve, working with the families, giving them scholarships to present, doing job transition programs, benefits information programs, we're invited on base.

We have a stellar reputation for complying with all these regulations, so one example, we put out a letter to the nhief of naval reserve and asked if he would put out not a partisan but encouraging his officers to consider the offer of one free year membership for anybody in the Reserve in MOAA. He put this out to his entire Reserve officer corps. Now, he said that MOAA is one of the other outstanding organizations. There are others you can join, but you ought to consider joining one of our military associations to help serve you and better represent you, and [he] specifically mentioned us, so folks want to do the right thing. They know how important we are, but there are rules and regulations. So as long as we comply with those, I think you'll see that on most bases and facilities, as long as we comply, people very much want our support and want us to speak up on their behalf. So thanks for what you're doing.

GENERAL HENDRIX: Because I think it's important and because we have the membership charge, let me also add my two bits. I think under the categories of awards, education, and services, you can do certain things. You can do nothing under the guise of recruiting and remember that private organizations, which we are, are especially approached in law. So if you push this, you're going to end up getting the people you're trying to help in legal trouble if they go along with you.

But what you can do, and what we do at the national level, is you can generate awards. Awards are a very, very good way to get into a base and a unit and get that moment of exposure and get your brand name out front. You can do that, and you can do that legally. It should not be an award. It should be an award that recognizes something that they do, and we could probably get some advice out on awards, how you do that. So there's always the opportunity to recognize people for what's going on inside our military units, and it's a great way to recognize serving Americans, and it's also a way for us to get that exposure which is so hard to get now. Okay. Another question over here.

COLONEL ROOT: I'm Colonel John Root, United States Air Force, Retired, New Hampshire Chapter. Sir, last night I sat and watched C-SPAN and the House of Representatives in Washington and I was very, very disturbed at the way they conducted the debate over Congressman Murtha's suggestion that we immediately withdraw from Iraq. That body, I conclude, does not have the integrity that we as military personnel have shown in our careers. And I think part of this is because the numbers of military veterans that serve in the Congress is diminishing as the months and years go by. As an idea or as a suggestion, is there some way in a very, very strictly nonpartisan manner that we as an organization can encourage retired and former military members to consider a career in politics, a second career, and run for Congress and replace some of those people up there -- [Laughter and applause.]

COLONEL ROOT: -- some of those people that are not representing our interests? Thank you.

GENERAL HENDRIX: I'm going to take that as a statement rather than a question. What we do is, of course, we -- and I know you know this, but we maintain a strictly nonpartisan line because we take help from every corner, and we come from the belief that there are members of Congress, Senate and House, who both, who are all very dedicated Americans, but I don't take issue with anything that you say. I don't know that there's a way that we can or should take on trying to advise people to run for public office regardless of their background.

But there is, as you know, with your background, there is a great reticence on the part of most military men and women to enter into politics. Some of them are not reticent at all, and you see those, but many of them, I think, you would have a very difficult time trying to push into politics because we've chosen our contribution. Anyone else want to respond to that? I'll let the general counsel. [Laughter.]

CAPTAIN WYLIE: This is the danger of giving a lawyer an open microphone. [Laughter.] As a general matter, sir, you can encourage folks who have served in uniform to serve in a different way, serving as state, local, federal legislators as long as you keep it general. We are allowed by law to lobby, and Steve Strobridge and his folks are hands-down the best in the world at what they do. No question about it.

But there is a line over which those wonderful lobbyists may not go. We work issues everyday. What we cannot do is cross the line so that we are working political candidates. You can encourage somebody, an individual, or military folks in general to offer themselves, as I say, for continued service in a legislature or appointed office or something like that. But as soon as a candidate is identified, you as a MOAA entity, a MOAA chapter, or National MOAA, may not support or push one way or another someone for political office.

Of course, you may do so in your capacity as a citizen, and we encourage that. Be part of the political process, but our tax-exempt status as a national organization, national veterans organization, precludes us from working what's called "political activity." We can lobby, but we can't do candidates for office. Issues, not candidates. Does that help? [Applause.]

GENERAL HENDRIX: We understand the frustration, but we're a nonpolitical organization. We represent the interest of our members, and you would say that's in the interest of our members, but it's a one-way road to disaster if we start getting into politics in any way like that, so we would refrain from doing that. Next question, please?

MEMBER: Can you vet candidates?

GENERAL HENDRIX: You're next. I see frustration over on the right flank. I'm going to come to you next.

MEMBER: This is an add-on to the former thing. Can you vet candidates legally?

GENERAL HENDRIX: No.

CAPTAIN WYLIE: I'm not sure what that means.

GENERAL HENDRIX: I'm not sure what that means, but I think -- you want to define your definition.

MEMBER: There are military options and problems that we have which candidates running for office may not be fully aware. Can you vet them on that or not?

GENERAL HENDRIX: I will say this, and then I'm going to let the general counsel say here, just understand that we are a nonpolitical organization. We represent the interests of our members, their welfare, and although it's alluring to get into politics, it is a dangerous and I think illegal activity. So I'm going to let the general counsel talk to the legal parts of it.

CAPTAIN WYLIE: I don't want to dominate the Q&A session here this morning. I just got some rudder orders from my boss, so that's a good idea. Don't dominate the conversation. [Laughter.] I'm not sure, sir, what you mean by "vet." But I can tell you that a very useful service that a MOAA chapter might want to perform in the weeks and months before an election, whether it's a congressional election, local, state, whatever, is to have a forum and invite the candidates for a particular office to a debate, to a forum, have them each address the chapter. They can come on the same night. I'm talking about two. Maybe there are more. Have them come to the chapter on the same night, have them come at different nights. If you invite one in the weeks before an election, if you invite a political candidate -- I will assume two major parties are represented -- then you better invite the other one to an equal opportunity, if you will, to present his or her views. The point being if you are balanced in providing these opportunities to the political candidates, it will be seen as nonpartisan and nobody can accuse the chapter and by implication the national association of tilting for or away from a particular candidate. You are engaging, if you will, in voter education as opposed to beating the drum in favor or against a political candidate. Does that help?

GENERAL HENDRIX: We just don't get involved in elections. We'll work with whatever elected officials there are that represent the interests of our members. And when we give our awards, we give them equally to members of both parties. So, okay.

WARRANT OFFICER REIB: My name is Bob Reib. I'm a retired USAF Warrant Officer, and what I have to say is kind of insignificant after all these major problems here, but when you send us out messages and tell us to contact our congressman for various purposes, it would be helpful in your prepared letter if you left a space for us to write something. For instance, I've been paying my SWBP or SBP, or whatever the heck it is, for nearly 40 years. If my wife -- she couldn't possibly get what I've already paid into it. So if I could have said that on the bottom of the letter, how long I've been paying it, maybe he would be a little bit more inclined to make it a paid-up policy.

GENERAL HENDRIX: Okay. That's a good comment, and I'll just say we've got it under advisement and we will see if we can do that with our printed mail-ins. Thank you. Where's the next one? Okay.

LIEUTENANT COLONEL DUPREE: Lieutenant Colonel Trevor Dupree, Army Retired. Much of the media coverage of the war on terror is quite negative, things like Abu Ghraib, casualties, et cetera. There are a lot of successes out there that I don't think the general public is aware of, and I think they could be very important in the current debate that we see going on about the war. Is there anything that MOAA can do to promote, publicize the successes in our war on terror?

GENERAL HENDRIX: That's a good question. I'll let some of our publications people talk to that. Warren, are you here; you should take that. Warren, you want to take that?

COLONEL LACY: I can take that. If you look on your table, in Today's Officer, there is, in fact, a feature. In that issue of Today's Officer, we interviewed several individuals on the ground in Iraq talking about their positive contributions to that country and what they think about the war situation. Check out that issue there. We have several other stories working from troops on the ground about their experiences, and that, of course, gets out to our membership, and we'll attempt through other means, through Marv Harris or PR efforts, to get that out to the country.

GENERAL HENDRIX: You know I have the good fortune to spend an awful lot of time -- I still work for our military in a training capacity. Go to Iraq usually twice a year, and what you say is absolutely true. There is no resemblance between what's taking place on the ground and what we read here, although what we read here is all factual. It just does not include the perspective of the good things that are happening. But a caution would be also that we don't advocate war; we simply execute it and support the people who do. And so there is a thin line, I think, and we've got to be very careful over there, and Warren didn't get into that, but we do, we certainly herald those men and women who conduct that war, and we'd like for their good deeds to be known.

COLONEL GAVITT: Sir, my name is Bill Gavitt. I'm a member of the board from California. I'd like to respond to the suggestion that was made that we allow personal modification of the canned letters. In fact, the Capwiz system already does allow that, and I always personalize my letters to my congressman, Ken Calvert from 44th District. You can personalize top-to-bottom, change the text, any way you want, those wonderful canned letters that are already up there as suggestions. If you use the computer and go into Capwiz, dump in your ZIP code, you're going to get both your senators and your representative, and those letters are there just as suggestions, and just by moving your cursor, you can change those letters any way you want. So please use them. Thank you.

GENERAL HENDRIX: Okay. Bill, thank you. It always helps to have, not a geek, but-- [Laughter.] Okay. Next question?

LIEUTENANT ALLEN: David Allen, former lieutenant, U.S. Army Field Artillery. The first one is real easy, just recently relocated and a brand new member to San Antonio, so I'm just looking for a home chapter, but the other is identity theft. What does MOAA have on the table, if anything, with our Social Security having been our identifier and actually still is with every piece of paper that we complete?

GENERAL HENDRIX: That's a great question. And we do have a little bit of protection that we can offer. Norb, who should take that?

MEMBER: Sir, the Alamo Chapter will take him.

GENERAL HENDRIX: Okay. [Laughter.] Nothing like finding a home. I'm not sure who should take that.

VICE ADMIRAL RYAN: Is Mike here, Mike Jordan.

GENERAL HENDRIX: Mike. Okay. There he is.

COLONEL JORDAN: Why don't you afterwards let's get together and I'll talk about a service that we have that does provide protection for your own personal information. I'll be right here afterwards.

GENERAL HENDRIX: You know and it's modest, but I will tell you the thing I believe is we all have to get after our congressmen and -women about this issue. I mean this is devastating when you get hit, and we need probably legislation. Okay.

LIEUTENANT COLONEL SHANKLIN: Lieutenant Colonel Ken Shanklin, San Antonio Chapter. Recently arrived from California, where I recruited on base for a different organization, the American Legion, with permission of the commander. Went to the base commanders, pointed out I would put up an information table. You do not go out and stop people. You make things interesting so that they will come and speak to you. Then you are allowed at both Air Force Bases and Naval Bases. Lemoore Naval Air Station and Travis Air Force Base, I did recruiting for the American Legion and signed up many members. Just, there are rules. You understand you cannot be aggressive, and added to this I would have a question for Colonel Strobridge.

GENERAL HENDRIX: Let me just, if I could, what you say is true, but it's at the leisure and peril of the local military commander because of the DoD rules.

LIEUTENANT COLONEL SHANKLIN: Yes.

GENERAL HENDRIX: Because the DoD rules are very explicit. Trust me. I served them. And was investigated by the DoD IG for leaning too far over the line in supporting private organizations. So you got to be careful. We are not allowed to do those type, only at the leisure of the commander.

LIEUTENANT COLONEL SHANKLIN: Yes.

GENERAL HENDRIX: So what I advise is know where the installation key events are, get to those events, shake hands, meet people, let them know who you are, offer up an award. There are ways to get your flag out there, but if you get into the recruiting, we're going to hurt the very people that we want to help. That's just the other side of it. Now, your question.

LIEUTENANT COLONEL SHANKLIN: Yes, in both cases, I was allowed to set up outside the base exchange or post exchange. The question for Colonel Strobridge, three items we're backing at the Capitol toll free number for our congressmen were the Survivor Benefit Plan, the concurrent receipt, and what was the third one, sir?

GENERAL HENDRIX: It's a variety of health care issues. Steve, you want to come up and take that?

COLONEL STROBRIDGE: The third one was for Senator Graham's initiative to authorize permanent health care coverage for our Guard and Reserve, for the drilling Guard and Reserve forces. If you say Guard and Reserve health care, they'll know what you're talking about. So it's SBP, concurrent receipt, and Guard and Reserve health care, I think is the most concise way to say it.

GENERAL HENDRIX: Is that cleared up? You will get more on that for sure. Okay. I can't see with that big light out there. Warren, where are you? And then I'll come this way. We've got -- I'm just going to lay it down -- we've got two more questions, maybe one depending on how complicated it is. So we have it, you'll be next, and the rest of you can take a seat. [Laughter.]

MS. McQUADE: Yes, thank you. My name is Betty McQuade. I'm an 80-year-old widow of Lieutenant Colonel Frank H. McQuade, U.S. Air Force, and I'm acquainted with a chapter I want to be a member of. But I listened to the gentleman who made the statement about canned messages to Congress, and on behalf of him, I say thank you, but I always may add a personal note to the congressman/congresswoman that I am writing to by sending that card back. And there's always a note on it. I would like to make the statement that I have received answers from them both times, and I agree that it should be more personalized than that, and a person should be writing their congressman with the substance of their thinking, but I want to thank the membership and this organization that I am pleased to be a member of it because you keep me informed, and as a handicapped person, that's kind of hard to do, and I love the magazine because it tells me where we are going and what you've been doing. And I thank you for allowing me to say so. [Applause.]

GENERAL HENDRIX: You're my kind of girl there, Betty. And I agree with you, but I will say quickly one thing. It is, you can write the personal note, we certainly would encourage that, but send it in, get your response back. I'm telling you they tally it up by numbers. It's just how many responses did I get by numbers and so they will tally it up. I promised Mike. This is General Mike Carns, U.S. Air Force Retired.

GENERAL CARNS: I would ask Steve Strobridge to talk very briefly about how to communicate quickly. In some cases, if you send a letter in -- I just wanted to ask if Steve Strobridge could give us 30 seconds on how to communicate quickly with Congress? Many letters that you send in spend weeks in screening because of concern over sending in stuff inside the envelope, and therefore it doesn't get to Congress in a timely manner. So if he could give us 30 seconds on these big issues where we have to talk quickly and get to our congressman. We need to know how to do it best.

GENERAL HENDRIX: Okay. Fifteen seconds.

COLONEL STROBRIDGE: Use our Web site to send an e-mail, use that phone number to call your legislators, and preferably do both. Don't write. At this point for this year, it's going to take too long. So use the e-mail, send that message, send the alerts. If you don't have a computer, you can go to the library. One other thing that you can do, a lot of these legislators are home for the next two weeks. They're in their home districts. You can go visit their home office, try to talk to them face to face, talk to their local office staffer face to face. Whatever you do, it's got to be something in the next two or three weeks.

GENERAL HENDRIX: Okay. Those are great questions. We have one more.

MEMBER: This is probably just an informative message to a few women who are widows of veterans from World War II who carried 100 percent service-connected disability. My husband had both of his hands rendered unusable and received 100 percent service-connected disability with all his commissions and a full retirement. When the SBP came out in 1972, he took out that annuity because the gentleman that was informing us said that I would get both the SBP and the DIC because one has nothing to do with the other. Well, my husband paid into that for 32 years out of his service-connected non-taxable disability.
When he died, I found out that I got the DIC, but that canceled out the SBP. Not only that, they sent me a small portion of what he had put into that SBP, and then they sent me that money, and then I get a 1099 form that said I owed Uncle Sam taxable $7,000. Well, when I talked to the DoD and said how can you tax me on something that was not taxable, "lady, it's all taxable." They