CSM Nate Monastra


6th EANGUS President

State Association:  Ohio
Term:  1984 – 1988

Organizational Achievements

Allow the areas to select their chairperson, rather than having them selected by the EANGUS President. We selected the first full-time Executive Director, CMSgt (Retired) Alan Obermiller. We moved into the main floor of the National Guard Memorial Building, and became a visible entity in Washington D.C. Worked with Congressman Sonny Montgomery to have input into what was called the Montgomery initiatives. It was short timed, but I did considerable research on how to aid the National Guard from an enlisted standpoint. Those initiatives included, manpower, equipment, funding, growth in technicians and AGR personnel. I personally handed my text and opinions to Congressman Montgomery and he was pleased with what I had come up with.

Organizational Challenges

Getting the National Office organized and creating processes now that we had a full-time Executive Director. Created a steering committee to create a strategic plan that charted the future of EANGUS. This committee was formed while they were in Anchorage, Alaska while attending an Adjutants Generals meeting. Trying to get the committees together and to work together. The State Associations were stronger than EANGUS. President Monastra fired all the committee chairs because they were ineffective. Revenue was tough and membership was $2.00 annually. The AGR program started and the subcommittee on AGRs and Technicians discussed the merits of job security on both statuses. Rank inversion and income issues plagued those programs. As EANGUS grew, prior to this point, most of the leadership in EANGUS were Technicians and then AGRs.

Legislative Accomplishments

Worked to get ID Cards and Commissary privileges for National Guard and Reserve Personnel. I worked diligently with Our Executive Director and finally got a bill introduced to a subcommittee on commissary privileges. I contacted those Adjutant Generals of the various states who had members on that committee and we worked the grass roots efforts by contacting those committee members. It seemed like the subcommittee was in favor of passage, but to all, it turned out that the vote was 11-0 against passage. I along with those AGs were very upset with this outcome. I spoke with our Executive Director and asked who our strongest political ally in Congress was. I had him approach Senator Tom Daschel who had proven to be a strong supporter of EANGUS and the Guard, and he got the commissary bill introduced in the Defense Authorization Act. It passed and now we have the commissary privileges. We also worked together with National Guard Bureau to get dependent ID cards. We now have those for our dependents.