Ninety-eight years ago this weekend, ROA was formed in Washington, D.C., at the Willard Hotel.
A plaque on the hotel memorializes the unprecedented achievement: the establishment of a national military organization dedicated to America’s military security. Other organizations had been and would be formed for the “fraternal” benefits of members and their veterans’ benefits, both important and beneficial purposes.
ROA, however, was founded to ensure a strong America.
Among the 140 founders was General of the Armies John “Black Jack” Pershing, who had led the nation’s troops in World War I, merely four years before. The general and his fellow founders, all WWI veterans, had witnessed the drastic drawdowns after the war.
They knew as combat veterans that aggression would not respect the myopic isolationism gripping the nation’s policymakers. Less than two decades later, they were proven correct; by that time a strong ROA had helped ensure a corps of some 100,000 Reserve officers, upon which new Chief of Staff of the Army Gen. George C. Marshall could rebuild the Army that would vanquish tyranny in Europe and the Pacific.
The nation repeated its abandonment of military readiness after 1945 and learned hard lessons in Korea; ROA fought to rebuild and support a strong Reserve force. Decades later, its relentless focus paid off with Reserve and National Guard readiness revitalized in time to make the difference in Operation Desert Storm and the campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan, during which more than 1,200 lost their lives.
Since 9/11, more than 1 million members of the Reserve and National Guard have been activated for service.
A revitalized ROA in the fight, making the difference
With its centennial in two years, ROA has itself come victoriously through a period of revitalization and today stands proudly as America’s only national military organization solely and exclusively dedicated to support of national security through a strong Reserve and National Guard. Some other groups may support the Reserve and Guard
as part of what they do
, but it is
all that ROA does.
At the heart of ROA’s impact on national security and a strong Reserve and National Guard is a vibrant and effective legislative and policy campaign. ROA fights on Capitol Hill and within the military’s citadels on behalf of readiness and members of the Reserve Components, their stalwart families, our honored veterans of the Reserve force, and their patriotic civilian employers. This fight goes directly to our nation’s military readiness in an increasingly dangerous world.
When ROA goes into a policymaker’s office, we carry solid credibility, and we engage constructively. We bring feasible, affordable, suitable solutions – exactly what members of Congress and officials in DoD, VA, and elsewhere in government regard as useful and practical. In other words, we bring workable solutions and the “street cred” to back them up.
For a detailed review of our legislative and policy accomplishments and our current legislative advocacy agenda, please visit our website, ROA.org, or click
here
.
ROA supports all members of the Reserve and Guard: we support the force, all services, all ranks. Reflecting our expansion of membership eligibility to all ranks, we have adopted a new “doing business as” name: Reserve Organization of America.
The name on our 1950 charter, signed by President Harry S. Truman (a WWI National Guardsman and an early ROA member), is Reserve Officers Association, and we retain that official grand old name. Yet, even as we carry forward our time-honored mission, we do so as the
new
ROA.
Membership is responding, and our membership roles are increasing, bringing new energy, new faces and ideas, and a new future. ROA is an organization in regrowth, with abounding opportunities for those who wish to contribute and bring their own influences.
Breaching the obstacles and driving to the objective
ROA, like virtually every other organization in the U.S., hit a “minefield” in March, with the pandemic.
Unlike a lot of organizations, we didn’t stop, we didn’t falter; we attacked through it: we got the minefield, the minefield didn’t get us.
Undeterred, ROA is carrying the fight for a strong and ready Reserve and National Guard to the halls of power in our nation’s capital. ROA is making the difference for these wonderful young Americans who drop everything they love for the nation they love. We are making a difference for their families.
We are making a difference for veterans of the Reserve force. We are making a difference for those who employ our citizen-warriors.
The Reserve Organization of America is – as ROA was designed to do by those 140 war-savvy visionaries meeting at the Willard Hotel in October 1922, ninety-eight years ago – making the difference for a strong America.