AOC Chapter History: Aberdeen Proving Ground (APG)/Susquehanna Chapter

By J.R. May, Fran Orzech, and Ralph Troisio

Established September 14, 2009, the APG/Susquehanna Chapter provides support to the US Army customer base, collectively known as the Army’s C5ISR Center of Excellence, resident within Aberdeen Proving Ground (APG) in Maryland. Within APG, the chapter draws members from the Communication Electronics Command (CECOM); US Army Combat Capabilities Development Command (DEVCOM)/Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Cyber, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (C5ISR) Center; Capability Program Executive Intelligence and Spectrum Warfare (CPE-ISW) and Capability Program Executive Command, Control, Communications, and Network (CPE C3N); and, of course, the industrial community supporting this vast APG-based Army customer.

The APG/Susquehanna Chapter’s beginnings are firmly rooted within the AOC’s Garden State Chapter (GSC). In 2009, GSC supported the establishment of the Susquehanna Chapter as a result of the 2005 Department of Defense announcement that the Army’s C5ISR Center of Excellence, then located at Fort Monmouth, NJ, was to be relocated to Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD.

In 2009, then GSC President Brian Abbe and future Susquehanna Chapter President Giorgio Bertoli initiated the petition to form the Susquehanna Chapter in order to get ahead of the close to 6,000 professionals in the C5ISR field that would be relocating from New Jersey to Maryland and to assure that the AOC’s mission would continue alongside the relocated Army C5ISR Center of Excellence. In forming the Susquehanna Chapter, GSC decided that this new AOC chapter’s support to the Army’s C5ISR mission was so important that it generously “seed-funded” the new Susquehanna Chapter – since it was starting from scratch and had no funds on-hand – from its own internal Garden State Chapter funds! Today, the Susquehanna Chapter has about 125 members and continues to grow through Army and industry support of the chapter’s mission.

Formation of the chapter goes back to a meeting held in APG in January 2010 to gather together those who might want to participate in forming the new AOC chapter. In March 2010, the chapter’s first president, Giorgio Bertoli, issued an announcement to the local community that a new AOC chapter was to be formed. The years following the 2005 BRAC announcement were a turbulent time within the electromagnetic warfare (EW) and information operations (IO) community, which by 2010 was beginning to be split between Fort Monmouth and APG. With the BRAC decision of 2005 in its final stages of implementation, it was time to implement the strategy devised by the local Garden State Chapter leadership to ensure the AOC’s continuing legacy of service to the Army’s EW/IO community as it moved to its new home at APG.

With a constitution dated September 14, 2009, the Aberdeen Proving Ground (APG)/Susquehanna Chapter of the Association of the Old Crows was officially established within the “territory constituting the area within commuting distance of Aberdeen Proving Ground (APG), Maryland, specifically to include Maryland territories northeast of Baltimore, MD, as well as such additional or fewer cities and state subdivisions as may be deemed appropriate by the Association of Old Crows.”

Since its forming, the APG/Susquehanna Chapter has established itself as a key member of the APG community, supporting the annual Fisher House Foundation fundraising gala jointly with AFCEA and AUSA, along with social events tied to various Army activities and symposia. The chapter has also established its own scholarship program and has, since its formation, provided scholarships to worthy students on an annual basis, funded in part by a highly successful sponsorship program. The chapter also re-established monthly technical Lunch and Learn events, something that had been established by the Garden State Chapter and has proven popular.

In 2015, the APG/Susquehanna Chapter, jointly with AOC national, re-established an annual classified Army EW conference, something that had been lacking since BRAC impacted similar Fort Monmouth-based events. Sponsored by APG Team C5ISR, under a co-sponsorship agreement with AOC and the APG/Susquehanna Chapter, the inaugural Army Cyber Electromagnetic Activity (CEMA) Summit was held at Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD, in October of that year, attracting nearly 540 participants from the military, government, academia, and industry. CEMA would be held annually, with attendance hitting nearly 900 attendees.

Today, the chapter is in good hands with a strong Board of Directors. The Lunch and Learn program continues to impress, support of Fisher House is unwavering, and support of the annual CEMA Summit is in place having weathered COVID and government shutdowns. As a result, the work of APG/Susquehanna Chapter has been recognized by AOC headquarters with awards for Small Outstanding Chapter and has had numerous members recognized for individual awards as well.