RELEASE:
NGAUS Selects New Association President
WASHINGTON (Dec. 5, 2016) – The association that gives voice to National Guard officers in the nation’s capital will soon have a new person running its day-to-day operations here.
The NGAUS board of directors has selected retired Brig. Gen. J. Roy Robinson of Mississippi to be the association’s next president. He will succeed retired Maj. Gen. Gus Hargett, who will step down in April. Robinson will begin his transition in February.
The NGAUS president serves as the association’s chief executive officer. The position has daily responsibility for the 28-member NGAUS Washington staff, the NGAUS Insurance Trust and the National Guard Educational Foundation (NGEF).
He is also the association’s point man on Capitol Hill.
“General Hargett’s retirement does leave some big shoes to fill,” said Maj. Gen. James Hoyer, the NGAUS chairman of the board, “but we believe General Robinson has the skills, experience and leadership to build on the successes of the last seven years.”
Robinson, a retired Army Guard officer, is the executive director of the National Guard Association of Mississippi, the largest state Guard officer association with more than 2,500 members. He served as NGAUS vice chair-Army from September 2014 to September 2016.
The Mississippi Army National Guard general retired from the military earlier this year after more than 30 years in uniform. His last assignment was as the assistant adjutant general-Army. Over the course of his career, he commanded troops at multiple levels, including the 150th Combat Engineer Battalion in Iraq in 2005.
Robinson holds a masters of business administration from Jackson State University and worked in a series of sales and marketing positions before beginning full-time service with the Mississippi National Guard in 1995.
He will move to Washington with the respect and admiration of his state.
“General Robinson will do an excellent job leading NGAUS. Mississippi is proud of his accomplishments and he will represent the country well as president of this esteemed organization,” said Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant.
Hargett, a former Tennessee adjutant general, has been NGAUS president since 2010. His successes include several victories in Congress, namely the establishment of a Guard seat on the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the creation of independent Army and Air Force commissions to look at future Guard roles and missions.
“General Hargett has been a true national leader in advancing the role of the National Guard and caring for our citizen-soldiers and their families,” Hoyer said. “We wish him well in his future endeavors.”
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About NGAUS: The association includes nearly 45,000 current or former Guard officers. It was created in 1878 to provide unified National Guard representation in Washington. In their first productive meeting after Reconstruction, militia officers from the North and South formed the association with the goal of obtaining better equipment and training by petitioning Congress for more resources. Today, 138 years later, NGAUS has the same mission.
12/5/16
Magnolia Tribune
