EANGUS Annual Conference

Sioux Falls, September 1972

Thirty state delegations gathered at the Holiday Inn in downtown Sioux Falls, South Dakota, in late September 1972. Twenty-three state enlisted associations had been chartered before the convention. Over five days the delegates wrote a constitution, elected the first national officers, and passed fifteen resolutions.

They founded EANGUS for two reasons. Federal law prohibits the Guard from lobbying on its own behalf, so an independent voice had to be independently funded and independently directed. And the officer association had considered admitting enlisted members and voted it down. The Adjutant General of South Dakota told the convention why: the enlisted association already existed and had real potential, and folding it into NGAUS before it could stand would have killed it.

MG Duane L. Corning, Adjutant General of South Dakota, closing the first EANGUS convention, September 1972.

Nine of those fifteen have since been enacted. Commissary and exchange access for retired reservists. Removal of the sixty-point cap on inactive duty retirement points. A burial flag for deceased Guardsmen. Full retirement credit for technician service. Survivor benefits. The right to wear state awards on federal active duty. The first resolution on the list, a GI Bill for reservists, took fourteen years.

We were there

The roll call of states, taken on the morning of 26 September 1972, records Kentucky present. Each state was represented by five delegates.

Virgil S. Van Arsdale of Kentucky is named among the founders on the EANGUS founders scroll. He was also a director of this association at its incorporation on 8 November 1972, six weeks after the convention adjourned.

Kentucky has held national office since. CSM Jim Garritson served as the fifth President of EANGUS from 1980 to 1984. Membership passed 40,000 for the first time in association history during his tenure, the Building Fund that eventually bought a headquarters was started under him, and in 1983 he established the Scholarship Committee and the scholarship fund that still runs today.

Kentucky has not missed the room since.

How Kentucky is represented

Delegate strength follows paid membership. That formula was set at the founding convention and it has not changed.

What to expect

The conference runs several days and splits into three kinds of work. Business sessions are the floor: roll call, resolutions, elections, committee reports. Area caucus meetings are where the states in Area II meet as a bloc and decide how to move together. Professional development sessions run alongside both, and there is an exhibit hall.

Evenings are their own thing. There is typically a welcome night, an event for junior enlisted members, and a closing all-states dinner. Attendance is not restricted by rank, and first-time attendees are common.

You do not need to be a delegate to attend. Delegates carry the vote. Any member in good standing can be in the room.

The full agenda publishes on the EANGUS website closer to the conference.