Adjutant General’s Corps Regimental Association - The Origins Story
By COL (Ret) Steve Shappell, VP, History, National Executive Council (NEC), AGCRA, first published on December 8, 2022
What’s the difference between the Adjutant General’s Corps, the Adjutant General’s Corps Regiment, and the Adjutant General’s Corps Regimental Association (AGCRA)? While they are not interchangeable terms for the same entity, they are three separate but mutually supporting organizations.
The Adjutant General’s Corps, a cornerstone of the Army, has a history that is almost as old as the Army itself. On June 16, 1775, the Continental Congress made a historic resolution - the birth of the Adjutant General of the Continental Army. The very next day, Horatio Gates, a former British Major, was selected as the first Adjutant General of the Continental Army with the rank of Brigadier General. This momentous appointment marked the birth of the Adjutant General’s Corps, establishing it as the Army's oldest Combat Service Support branch.
Yet, it would not be until more than 200 years later that the Adjutant General’s Corps Regiment came into existence. In 1981 the U.S. Army introduced the Regimental System into its manning construct. Initially limited to Combat Arms, the purpose of the Regimental System was to affiliate Soldiers with a regiment throughout their careers to foster a sense of belonging and unit identity. In addition, the system sought to perpetuate each regiment's history, lineage, and honors. With multiple battalions in a regiment, and the battalions stationed at various locations around the world, in theory, a Soldier could rotate between the continental United States and overseas assignments without leaving the regiment. Several years later, Combat Support and Combat Services Support branches were added to the Regimental System, with each branch or corps becoming a single regiment.
In December 1985, the Chief of Staff of the Army approved the Adjutant General’s Corps Regimental Implementation Plan. An estimated 54,000 Active component Soldiers were integrated into a regiment, in addition to over 53,000 Army Reserve and Army National Guard Soldiers. The actual activation of the Adjutant General’s Corps Regiment occurred on June 17, 1987, at Fort Benjamin Harrison, Indiana. Two AG training battalions and eight reception battalions were redesignated and activated within the Regiment on the same day. The Army designated Fort Benjamin Harrison as the AG Corps' regimental home. The Institute of Heraldry also designed the Adjutant General’s Corps Regimental Crest and Colors and the colors and crest for the redesignated battalions.
Unfunded requirements associated with the regimental activation and unit redesignations initially drove the need to create the Adjutant General’s Corps Regimental Association (AGCRA). The regimental activation required the regimental crests to be distributed to the Soldiers of the regiment, as well as funding activation events at the Adjutant General School and the installations on which the redesignated units resided. These expenses were costs that had not been projected beforehand and thus were not in the School’s budget. For this reason, the Adjutant General School leadership established AGCRA as a nonprofit organization whose primary purpose was to support the aims and objectives of the Adjutant General’s Corps Regiment.
The Association intended to fund regimental projects by selling Adjutant General’s Corps memorabilia. There were 199 founding members of the AGCRA, including Major Generals Verne L. Bowers, J. C. Pennington, Kenneth G. Wickham, and William G. O’Lesky; and Brigadier Generals Ronald E. Brooks, R. Lex Dilworth, James A. Norell, Mildred E. Hedberg, and Jack T. Pink. Also present as founding members were several officers who would later become General Officers of the Adjutant General’s Corps, including Captain Reuben D. Jones, Lieutenant Colonel Neil N. Snyder III, Colonel Frederick E. Vollrath, and Colonel Arthur T. Dean.
As initially envisioned, AGCRA was a worldwide nonprofit organization based at Fort Benjamin Harrison. Thus, much of the Association's early activity was focused on Fort Benjamin Harrison. The first AGCRA Chapter, the Gold Vault Chapter, based at Fort Knox, Kentucky, was activated on December 5, 1988, and has been in continuous operation since then. One month later, the January 1989 edition of “1775,” The Journal of the Adjutant General’s Corps Regimental Association, announced the commencement of a worldwide Chapter program. The next Chapter activated was the Iron Mike Chapter at Fort Bragg (recently renamed Fort Liberty), North Carolina, which was activated on June 24, 1989.
Since the commencement of the worldwide Chapter program, AGCRA has established over 55 Chapters worldwide. Some of these, like the Morning Calm Chapter in the Republic of Korea, activated on November 9, 1989, remain in operation today. As Chapters are located in places where the Army has Soldiers, some of these Chapters have ceased to operate as the Army has closed bases in the United States and around the world – permanently closed Chapters include the Greater Atlanta Chapter at Fort McPherson, Georgia (activated July 11, 1992, and deactivated circa 2011); the Horatio Gates Chapter at Fort Benjamin Harrison (activated November 17, 1989, and deactivated June 23, 2003); and the Gateway Chapter at St. Louis, Missouri (activated October 28, 1998, and deactivated November 17, 2008).
Today, AGCRA includes, in addition to installation-based Chapters, several Virtual Chapters - the ARSOF Chapter, currently inactive in 2024, supporting the Army Special Operations Forces; the Freedom’s Front Door Chapter supporting the widely dispersed Military Entrance Processing Command and its subordinate MEPS; the John F. Gathers Global Sergeants Major Chapter; and the Keystone Chapter supporting the Pennsylvania Army National Guard. Other Army National Guard-focused Chapters have been activated in recent years, including the Volunteer Chapter (Tennessee National Guard) on August 12, 2015, and the S.H.I.E.L.D. Chapter (Oregon National Guard) on December 9, 2017 (currently inactive in 2024).
Due to the Adjutant General School's relocation from Fort Benjamin Harrison in 1995, on July 14th of that year, AGCRA officially moved its operating location to the new site of the School at Fort Jackson, South Carolina.
The position of the Commandant of the Adjutant General School, as the Chief of the Adjutant General’s Corps, traditionally carried with it the subsequent election as AGCRA President. Additionally, National Executive Council (NEC) members were traditionally drawn from the schoolhouse staff. Through this connection, AGCRA, while a nonprofit association (considered a private organization by the Army), operated the Regimental Sutler Store on the premises of the Adjutant General School – first at Fort Benjamin Harrison and later at Fort Jackson. The proceeds from the Sutler Store initially enabled AGCRA to fund activities supporting the Adjutant General School and the Adjutant General’s Corps Regiment.
Over the years, activities funded by AGCRA have included an annual Scholarship Program, speaker honorarium, and ball sponsorships. AGCRA is, and has always been, a private organization supporting the Adjutant General’s Corps Regiment and the Adjutant General School. As such, the Association has always had to be mindful of the Army regulations concerning the operations of private organizations on Army installations [1]. In 2016, it became apparent to the NEC that AGCRA operations on Fort Jackson proper, and remaining in compliance with Army regulations, were no longer conducive to Association operations. Thus, the Association moved all of its operations off post (including the Sutler Store) and determined that the Association leadership would no longer be automatically drawn from the Adjutant General School.
Hence, Colonel Neil McIntyre, Commandant of the Adjutant General School in 2016, resigned as Association President, and Colonel (Retired) Rob Manning, a former Commandant of the Adjutant General School and former President of the Association, was once again elected by the NEC to serve as Association President. Moreover, this move off an Army installation enabled the NEC to expand its aperture for board members now drawn from AGCRA members worldwide.
For historical purposes, AGCRA has retained the term “Regimental” in its title since the Association's founding in 1987. However, the republication of AR 870-21, The U.S. Army Regimental System, on April 13, 2017, officially dropped the term “Regiment” for the Adjutant General’s Corps. The Adjutant General’s Corps is now listed as a separate “Corps” within the regulation.
Also note that in 2023 AGCRA created its own flag, proposed by Colonel (Retired) Manning and approved by the NEC, to show that the Association is an organization distinct from the Adjutant General School and the Adjutant General’s Corps Regiment (now officially called the Adjutant General’s Corps).
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[1] Primarily Army Regulation 210-1, Private Organizations on Department of the Army Installations
