There have always been young professionals organizations within the Association of the United States Army and within the defense industry, but the desire to capitalize on it has strengthened in the last year or two.
So the AUSA, a nonprofit educational and professional development association serving the U.S. Army and other defense industries, with more than 100 chapters nationwide, is making a big push to get younger people involved.
The AUSA’s Arsenal of Democracy Chapter, the chapter that serves Michigan, launched its inaugural Young Professionals initiative with ab event Friday in Sterling Heights, Mich., establishing a new platform designed to develop the next generation of leaders across the defense, government, and industrial base.
Austin Monroe, the new chair of AOD’s Young Professionals, said the event adds to AUSA’s emphasis on the program.
“It’s elevating (the program) to something of importance,” Monroe explained. “It’s a new initiative in the sense that we’re driving to break through into some new spaces and new opportunities.”
Hosted at the Velocity Center in Sterling Heights, the event brought together emerging professionals and established leaders for an evening focused on leadership, responsibility, and the future of the defense ecosystem.
The event featured keynote remarks from Mike Clemens, Director of Global Military Sales and Strategy at defense contractor Textron Systems and a retired Command Sergeant Major with over 31 years of service. Clemens shared insights drawn from his experience supporting U.S. Army modernization efforts, including work with Army Futures Command and the Next Generation Combat Vehicles Cross-Functional Team.
But the biggest benefit from Friday’s event may have been the crosstalk between veterans of the defense industry and the young people just getting started.
“At the national level and locally, there’s a big drive for these programs because everybody’s starting to realize that there’s a little bit of a generational gap and a little bit of a knowledge gap going on in the defense industry,” said Monroe, a mechanical engineer at defense cointractor Mettle Ops. “You have people that have been around for a very long time that really know what they’re doing … and then you have people that are really new to it or really young to it.
“Our mission here is bringing those people together, closing those gaps,” he added. “The really defining issue that could come out of it down the road is that the people that have all the knowledge, that know what they’re doing, that know the history, know where we’ve came from, don’t pass down the knowledge they have and the history that we have to that next wave of leaders, and we’re losing a lot of the efforts that are really important to maintain and then move on into the future.”
The launch of the Young Professionals initiative signals a continued commitment to ensuring leadership continuity across the defense community by creating intentional opportunities for emerging talent to engage, learn, and lead.
“This initiative is about access and trajectory,” Monroe said. “We’re building a space where the next generation of leaders can engage directly with experience, understand how decisions are made, and position themselves to contribute in a meaningful way.”
Future Young Professionals events are planned throughout the year. For more information or to get involved, visit: ausaarsenalofdemocracy.org.
