Chairman's Column

NHA Symposium 2023

By RADM D.H. “Dano” Fillion, USN (Ret.)

In his book, "The SOUL of a Team," NFL Hall of Fame, Super Bowl winning Coach Tony Dungey is asked to help a friend figure out why the fictional Orlando Vipers are not performing to the level that everyone believes the team should be reaching. Excerpt from The SOUL of a Team: “After meeting with the coaching staff and observing the team throughout the off-season, Tony quickly realizes the problem: The Vipers lack ‘SOUL.’”

Relax, I am not going to deliver a sermon here, but I could! Coach Dungey defines the acronym “SOUL” as Selflessness, Ownership, Unity, and Larger Purpose.

The theme of this year’s National Symposium is “Forging Legacy - Legends Past and Present.” The women and men we as the membership of NHA will hear from by sharing their respective stories will epitomize the tenants that Coach Dungey describes in his book as the absolute pillars required to build a successful team! We, the current membership of NHA both active and retired, have all in some way benefited from the accomplishments of our past legends and are seeing first hand how the rotary wing current leaders are Forging a Legacy for the entire Rotary wing component of the Naval Aviation Enterprise (NAE). The membership, comprised of our pilots, AWR/S/F’s, our amazing maintainers / support teams / industry partners, and retired Legends (all in our own minds) have in some way over the years contributed to building a team with SOUL!!!

"Forging Legacy - Legends Past and Present” is a theme for Symposium that we have never explored with this much granularity and focus. It promises to be interesting, entertaining and inspiring for sure. See you there and if you can't be with us at Harrah's, then watch our Facebook Live page so you won’t miss any of our Legends Past and Present; bring your SOUL!!!

“Any nation that does not honor its heroes will not long endure.”

As always, I am, V/r and CNJI (Committed Not Just Involved), Dano