HowgozitDecember 2006

For all ANA Wing Commanders and ANA Squadron Commanding Officers:

Responding to widespread demand from wings and squadrons throughout ANA, a small cadre of WashDC area individuals has been working with the Naval Aviation Foundation to restore national headquarters ANA assets and responsibilities. This is a howgozit report.

First, by way of review, the original ANA headquarters was dissolved by a vote of the then-board of directors in September 2005. All assets and responsibilities were transferred to the NAF and on March 30, 2006, the termination of the ANA (a 501c(4) organization), was approved by the Virginia State Corporation Commission. Since then, with an extremely small staff and limited resources, the NAF has supported the ANA membership and Wings of Gold. Unfortunately, largely because of limited manpower there has been a lack of visibility into the general management of the NAF, the stewardship of transferred assets, and, especially, the management of dollars. This, in turn, has led to concerns among wings and squadrons, concerns which figure heavily in the sentiment to re-establish an ANA headquarters. By the way, nothing in the above observations should be construed as faulting the intent of the NAF. RADM Mark Hill, the NAF president, undertook to mange the ANA assets when the ANA board concluded they could no longer handle it. For that we owe RADM Hill our thanks.

At any rate, the desire of a preponderance of the ANA wings and squadrons to re-establish the ANA headquarters in the WashDC area, the informal affirmation of the Navy of a need for an ANA-like organization, and the desire of RADM Hill to unburden the NAF from the responsibilities of managing the residual of the old ANA as well as the NAF have all combined to lead to taking the necessary steps to re-establish the ANA headquarters.

At this point, a temporary board of directors has been formed consisting of Captains Ernie Snowden and Dutch Rauch and me. Articles of Incorporation for a new ANA as a 501c(3) organization, have been filed and approved by the Virginia State Corporation Commission. An "Assignment and Assumption Agreement" which lays out the details of the transfer of ANA assets from NAF has been drafted and is currently being considered by the NAF board. We hope for resolution of its details shortly.

Our goal for completion of all actions is 31December 2006. We will hit the ground running to bring ANA back to life as a vibrant organization for Naval Aviation. Among the first actions will be selection of officers and bylaws by the membership-at-large and approval of a 2007 budget. We earnestly solicit your support in passing on this good news to membership and engaging them in the rebirth of our Association of Naval Aviation.

Your inputs are encouraged. You may send them either to me or to Captain Dutch Rauch at svwindmills@erols.com.

Robert F. Dunn
VADM, USN (Ret)