
CSM A. Frank Lever III
14th EANGUS President
State Association: South Carolina
Term: 2006 – 2010

Organizational Achievements
A Leadership/Membership Workshop was conducted in Gulfport, Mississippi in February, 2007. This enabled new Presidents and Committee Chairs from across the country to receive training in how to be effective at the State level. It also provided a way for the State Associations to inform the EANGUS Leadership on what needs they saw and how the organization could efficiently support each other.
Organizational Challenges
The National Guard began discussion on a new command, one chartered with flying and fighting in cyberspace. In a letter to Airmen, they said the new mission was to “deliver sovereign options for the defense of the United States of America and its global interests – to fly and fight in air, space and cyberspace.” This was a significant challenge, and one that EANGUS supported, but communicating and training new leaders in the State Associations, who could organize and develop a grass root effort on this and other issues, was necessary.
Legislative Accomplishments
Extend to 10 years the time limit for mobilized National Guard and Reserve servicemembers to use education benefits, as well as increase from 90 to 130 the amount of points per year applicable to a reserve retirement. Allowance for early retirement credit for National Guard and Reserve servicemembers, which allows for a reduction in retirement age by each 90-day period of qualifying active duty service performed from January 2008 forward. New educational benefits for service performed on active duty authorized by the Post-9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Act of 2008, includes coverage of costs for tuition, housing and books, and transferability of servicemember benefits to certain family members. Increasing, from 90 to 180 days, the time National Guard or Reserve servicemember eligibility for pre-mobilization TRICARE coverage, and TRICARE medical coverage for National Guard gray-area retirees. Successfully led Congress in amending the Post-9/11 GI Bill to ensure eligibility for National Guard servicemembers performing homeland security missions in a Title 32 status. 2006 saw more than 31,000 Reserve Component members signal their intent to use TRICARE Reserve Select (a law that was passed in 2005), and the Department of Defense proposed premium increases that tripled the 3.1% pay raise for 2006. EANGUS worked to prevent any proposals that diminished the health care benefit or shifted costs disproportionately to beneficiary groups.