Vet News: Board Selects New NGAUS President

(December 6, 2016) The chief executive officer of the largest state National Guard association will take over NGAUS daily operations early next year.

Retired Brig. Gen. Roy Robinson, the executive director of the Mississippi National Guard Association, was selected by the NGAUS board of directors Nov. 19 to succeed retired Maj. Gen. Gus Hargett as association president.

The position oversees the association’s 26-member Washington staff, the NGAUS Insurance Trust and the National Guard Educational Foundation. The association is also the NGAUS point man on Capitol Hill. 

Hargett, who has been in office since January 2010, is set to leave the association in April. Robinson will join the association staff in Washington, D.C., in February and right-seat ride before taking over as NGAUS chief executive in March. His contract runs three years.   

“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’s candidacy was endorsed by the Mississippi congressional delegation: Sen. Thad Cochran, R-Miss., Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., and Rep. Bennie G. Thompson, D-Miss., Rep. Gregg Harper, R-Miss., Rep. Steven Palazzo, R-Miss., and Rep. Trent Kelly, R-Miss. 

In September, the delegation recommended Robinson to the NGAUS Board of Directors and said, “Given General Robinson’s track record of service and success, we are confident that he will continue the tradition of excellence in supporting the men and women currently serving in the Army and Air National Guard, their families and all Guard retirees.”

Robinson retired from the military earlier this year after more than 30 years in uniform. His last assignment was as Mississippi’s assistant adjutant general-Army. Among other assignments, he commanded 150th Combat Engineer Battalion, 155th Armored Brigade Combat Team, in Iraq in 2005.

“I am both humbled and excited to be selected to follow my good friend, Gus Hargett, as NGAUS president,” Robinson said. “I am looking forward to being the loudest cheerleader and strongest advocate for the members of the National Guard across our great country.”