MOA & LOA National Presidents Series:  Lt Col Luke Gill, 1983 – 1984

Lt Col Luke Gill was the Maintenance Officer Association’s second national president.  He was a core munitions officer with broad aircraft maintenance experience—including two tours as an aircraft generation squadron commander.  He had also been a Palace Log team member in the late 1970s.  At the time of his selection as MOA President, he was assigned to the Missiles and Nuclear Branch at HQ USAF/LEYW, and the Exceptional Release Editor.   During his tenure Lt Col Gill championed the addition of Regional Representatives, pushed for more expedient cross-flow of information between chapters and improved recruiting.  Lt Col Luke Gill - another icon in the MOA & LOA archive of leadership.

MOA & LOA National Presidents Series:  Lt Col Ed Moitoza, 1985 - 1986 

Lt Col Ed Moitoza was the Maintenance Officer Association’s third national president.  He was definitely a “dyed-in-the-wool” career maintenance officer.  From the outset, his “Boardroom” focused on dealing with MOA’s rapid growth to over 650 members in 1985, and setting future direction for the association.  Lt Col Moitoza was an energetic, savvy president, championing such things as Maintenance Officer professional development and inserting the final links into MOA’s Regional Director network.  He was also instrumental in continuing to grow “MOA in Europe.”   Lt Col Moitoza will forever be remembered as MOA’s president at the time the Air Force “Maintenance” badge was introduced, identifying Maintenance Officers to the “outside world.”           

MOA & LOA National Presidents Series:  Col Reggie Jones, 1986 - 1987  

Col Reggie Jones was the Maintenance Officer Association’s fourth national president.  Although, he only served as an interim president from summer 1986 to summer 1987 due to the sitting president receiving a short-notice assignment, he was certainly instrumental in MOA’s history.  Membership crested the 1,000 member mark under his leadership and he significantly improved the organization’s financial posture.  An interesting quote from Col Jones provides us with some insight of his vision for MOA’s future;  “We [MOA] have grown from an organization concerned principally with the trivial, self-preserving arguments on rated versus non-rated issues to one with much broader professional concerns.”  He called it, “MOA’s professional maturation.”   

MOA & LOA National Presidents Series:  Lt Col Ray Reed, 1987 - 1989  

Lt Col Ray Reed became the Maintenance Officer Association’s fifth president in 1987.  As its leader, he made his intentions clear right from the start:  “To see the organization grow and prosper.”  A re-write of by-laws was his first order of business.  Sounds simple enough, but was in fact difficult to accomplish since new by-laws had to be voted on by ALL members!  Two very special events highlighted Lt Col Reed’s tenure as MOA President.  The first was presenting MOA’s first lifetime membership to Lt Gen Leo Marquez upon his retirement from active duty in 1987.  The second was a U.S. Air Force Aircraft Maintenance Delegation hosted by the People’s Republic of China, during which Chinese maintainers were made honorary MOA members.  Noteworthy too was Lt Col Reed’s kick-off of MOA’s 1987 Convention in San Antonio, Texas.  The conference was the organization’s largest up to that point with 87 members attending!  Did Lt Col Ray Reed or other MOA pioneers ever envision a time when conferences would draw 1500 members, sponsors, and vendors?  Their legacy certainly lives on.                         

MOA & LOA National Presidents Series:  “Lt Col” Don Wetekam, 1990 - 1992  

“Lt Col” Don Wetekam was elected as the Maintenance Officer Association’s seventh president in August 1990.  When elected he was the F-15 aircraft Logistics Program Manager at HQ/USAF and interestingly, was a fairly new MOA member.  Lt Col Wetekam’s experience up to that point included munitions, EOD, aircraft maintenance, MAJCOM staff and squadron command.  Of course we know him today as the Air Force’s top loggie—the Deputy Chief of Staff for Logistics, Installations, and Mission Support.   As President it was important to him to set a realistic, actionable agenda that MOA could easily achieve during his tenure.  Soon after taking the MOA helm, Operation Desert Shield became Desert Storm.  Lt Col Wetekam passed on his thanks for a job well done and published the “Desert Storm Diary” in the Exceptional Release.  He was also the first President to publish the “Member Directory” that same year, adding another good tool for member continuity in that pre-electronic era.  Lt Col Don Wetekam was MOA President at an important time in Air Force Logistics.  We salute his service to our great organization!                  

MOA & LOA National Presidents Series:  Colonel Mark B. Roddy, 1992 - 1994

Colonel Mark Roddy was elected as the Maintenance Officer Association’s eighth president in the Spring of 1992.  From the start, membership was a key agenda item during his tour.  In his first Exceptional Release “Letter From the President”, he brought up the notion of opening MOA to the sister services, due in part to decreasing budgets and increased jointness.  Fifteen years later one can make the same argument in today’s military climate.  He also made it a point to reemphasize that retired and separated officers are not only eligible, but are a necessity to grow a viable and robust organization.  In addition, Lifetime Membership was enacted, Active and Honorary Membership incorporated, and with much consternation, dues were raised to $25 to ensure services such as the ER publication could be maintained.  In addition, under Colonel Roddy’s term, the annual convention was held at Tinker AFB instead of in Washington D.C. and changes to the by-laws and Executive Council were made.  It is these changes to the by-laws that demonstrate an interesting twist to Colonel Roddy’s term of presidency.  As he was following a dual track of retiring from the USAF and ending his presidency, the by-laws had to be approved before elections could be held.  Well, he retired but retained the MOA Presidency just awhile longer until the by-laws were approved and elections were held.  Colonel Roddy made significant changes during his tour which shaped MOA/LOA to this day and we salute his service to our great organization.