American Legion attends AUSA's annual expo

American Legion attends AUSA's annual expo

The Association of the United States Army (AUSA) held it’s 2018 annual meeting and expo Oct. 8-10 in Washington, D.C. The event draws military leaders and servicemembers from all over the world and is billed as the “largest annual display of land power in North America” with more than 31,000 people in attendance.

The American Legion had an information booth at the AUSA expo where staff members from the Washington, D.C., office shared information about the organization with attendees and recruited approximately 100 new members.

Army Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Milley delivered the keynote Oct. 9, addressing the need for a strong and capable ground force.

“The faint clouds of a coming storm are visible on the horizon,” Milley said to a crowd of over 3,000. “And our first duty to our soldiers and our nation is readiness. Readiness today and readiness tomorrow to prepare for that storm.

“Amid all the headline news, it seems like we hardly notice we're still a nation at war in some places and in others we’re still preventing war and sometimes we lose sight of the heroes like Slape and Shurer and Vandal who make freedom possible,” said Milley, referencing Sgt. James Slape, a North Carolina National Guardsman killed Oct. 4 in Afghanistan; Staff Sgt. Ronald Shurer II, who was awarded the Medal of Honor on Oct. 1 for his courage in battle in Afghanistan in 2008; and Lt. Gen. Thomas Vandal, former commander of 8th Army and the 2nd Infantry Division, who recently passed away after a battle with cancer.

“It’s our job to protect and defend this country and I know we’ll do it. We’ll protect and defend our Constitution so that this experiment in liberty that we call the United States of America, shall not perish from this earth,” Milley concluded.