During the 2025 Voting Season, September 1-30, 2025, ROA members will elect 12 new members to the Executive Committee. For each service section: vice president, junior vice president, and two executive committeemen.

For the Naval Services, one executive committeeman will be from the Navy, PHS, or NOAA, the other will be from the Marine Corps, PHS, or NOAA.

CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE 

CLICK HERE TO VOTE NOW (Must Log In)

Photo by retired Capt. Joe Pica, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA); original story submitted by retired Lt. Col. Mike Moose, U.S. Army and member of the ROA Communications Committee.

On July 19, 2025, retired U.S. Navy Rear Adm. Paul Kayye, M.D., was recognized by the Department of North Carolina, Reserve Organization of America (ROA), for decades of service and leadership within the association and to the nation.

Kayye has served in leadership roles at the chapter, department and national levels, culminating in his tenure as National President of ROA. His contributions reflect a career of sustained commitment to both the military and the association’s mission of supporting Reserve Component service members.

In 2024, Kayye received ROA’s prestigious John R. Delafield Achievement Award, which is presented to members whose efforts exemplify distinguished service to the organization. The honor came in addition to his accomplished U.S. Navy career and medical profession.

During the Department of North Carolina’s annual convention this July, Kayye was presented with a rare and historically significant book: the 1990 edition of Naval Warfare Under Oars by Adm. William Ledyard Rodgers. First published in 1940 by the U.S. Naval Institute, the work is regarded as the definitive study of naval warfare in the pre-modern era, covering the evolution of maritime combat from roughly 400 A.D. through 1570 A.D.

Mike Moose, who acquired the volume in 2024, recognized its value not only as a scholarly text but also as a symbolic tribute to Kayye. The book traces centuries of naval strategy and innovation, offering insight into the foundations of sea power—an area that directly connects to Kayye’s service and the traditions of the Navy he helped lead.

The presentation of Naval Warfare Under Oars was intended as a surprise gift and a token of appreciation for Kayye’s many years of service to ROA. Department leaders emphasized that the gesture underscored both the enduring relevance of naval history and the personal legacy of an admiral who dedicated his career to advancing readiness, leadership and the Reserve force.

ROA's Trey Criner, Director of Operations, and sixteen leaders from MSOs, VSOs participated in the discussion focused on how DOD and MSO/VSOs can best work together to achieve those goals (goals of supporting our warriors, Veterans, and their families) – especially as they relate to ensuring the readiness and well-being of our warriors and their families.

Article and photos submitted by retired Col. John R. O'Shea, U.S. Army

Retired Col. John R. O'Shea, U.S. Army (above) leads a memorial service at the "Ever Forward" statue at Omaha Beach, a tribute to the men of the 29th Division who stormed the beaches in the first wave of Operation Overlord, 81 years ago. "I was privileged to participate as a military expert for Smithsonian Journeys during a 7-day tour in the Normandy Region of France," he said.

ROA National Councilman and New Hampshire Department President, retired Col. John O’Shea, U.S. Army, participated as a military expert for Smithsonian Journeys earlier this year, during a seven-day tour in the Normandy region of France focused on Operation Overlord.

Along with local experts, he led tours of Omaha and Utah Beaches, the artificial harbor at Arromanches, the cratered cliffs at Pointe du Hoc, the Caen Memorial Museum, and the Normandy American Cemetery at Colleville-sur-Mer.  

On a return through Paris, O’Shea had an opportunity to visit Musée de la Légion d'honneur et des ordres de chevalerie, dedicated to the history of French and foreign orders and decorations. 

While there he found a portrait of General of the Armies John J. "Black Jack" Pershing, and the many awards Pershing received including the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honor. The museum showcases the history of the Legion of Honor, the highest French order of merit, as well as other chivalric orders from France and around the world. 

O’Shea first joined ROA in 1972 and since then has contributed as a volunteer within his chapter and department ultimately being elected President of the Department of New Hampshire at the age of 34 and as a member of the National Council two years later.

At that time, he continued to support the goals of the association while serving as an “AGR” (active guard and reserve member) and, on retirement from active duty, was appointed the Director of Defense Education and Public Affairs on the ROA staff.  As recognition for his five years of service, Maj. Gen. Robert McIntosh, then executive director, presented him with the “Twice the Citizen” award.

He continues supporting the goals of ROA as National Councilman and Commander of the Department of New Hampshire.  Most significantly, he was solely responsible for the procurement and replacement of a bronze plaque marking the first office of the Reserve Officers Association on the White House campus.

The plaque rests in front of Blair House, the President’s guest house where all visiting Heads of State reside during their visit to the Oval Office.  This achievement was the culmination of a three-year effort by O’Shea coordinating with the White House Historical Foundation, the GSA, and the Executive Office of the President.

O’Shea retired after 41 years of military and government service. In addition to the ROA, he is an active member of the OCS Alumni Association where he is on the Board of Directors and Commander of the D.C. Chapter.  

Photo above was taken at the American Cemetery, Colleville-sur-Mer, France where over 9,000 rest in honor. ROA National Councilman and New Hampshire Department President, retired Col. John O’Shea, U.S. Army Reserve, led a memorial service at the "Ever Forward" statue at Omaha Beach, a tribute to the 19 National Guardsmen from Bedford, Virginia who were killed while storming the beaches of Normandy during the first wave of D-Day on June 6, 1944.   

Publisher Harper Horizon, 2025
Review by Maj. Gen. Jeffrey E. Phillips, U.S. Army (Ret.)

You may be acquainted with the 2009 bestselling book by Robert Edsel, The Monuments Men, about a detachment of U.S. soldiers who recovered some of the world’s greatest art treasures stolen by the Nazis. In 2014, The Monuments Men was made into a movie, directed by George Clooney and starring Clooney, Matt Damon, Bill Murray, John Goodman, and Cate Blanchett among others. 

Robert’s latest effort, his fifth book, is as unforgettable and promises to be just as successful. Remember Us, subtitled American Sacrifice, Dutch Freedom, and a Forever Promise Forged in World War II will be published by Harper Collins on April 29, 2025. 

Remember Us, dedicated “To the men and women in uniform who defend freedom,” left me stunned, with its story of an entire town adopting the graves of more than 8,200 American war dead outside the Dutch town of Margraten, just east of Maastricht.

Edsel’s deft hand crafts a story that flows compellingly, drawing the reader in, from page to page and chapter to chapter. It is a story intensely human, with all the elements of drama: conflict and disaster, heroes and villains, and ultimate triumph and redemption.

There is the mother of a U.S. Army Air Forces pilot, who was shot down and aided by the Dutch Resistance, but tragically executed by a German officer during his escape. Upon visiting her son’s fresh grave in 1946, intent on bringing his body home, the mother finds 1,200 Dutch mourners there in the rain, waiting for her visit. I will stop there because what follows will move you to tears. 
 
I found searing the story of African American soldiers who with pick, shovel, and bare hands in the rain and mud, ice and snow, dug the graves for the dead of Operation Market Garden, the battles of Aachen and the Hurtgen Forest, the Battle of the Bulge, and those who fell up to the war’s closing days. This is a story all-but-untold; it offers an unforgettable and important historic contribution.
 
Another story within Remember Us is that of the doctrinaire bureaucrats, uniformed and civilian, who tried to keep the faithful Dutch from watching over the graves of their liberators.  

And there is the Dutch woman who wrote the mother of a fallen soldier in 1945, “He is buried at the large U.S. Military Cemetery in Margraten, Holland, a place 6 miles from where I live. I am taking care of his grave.”

That cemetery is now the Netherlands American Cemetery and Memorial, and its graves are watched over to this day by the Dutch, who remember. 

Edsel is also a founder of the Forever Promise Project, a partnership between two nonprofit organizations: the Monuments Men and Women Foundation and the Foundation for Adopting Graves American Cemetery Margraten. It was created to realize the objective of the founders of the Margraten Grave Adoption Program: to connect American families with the Dutch adopters of their fallen loved ones. 

Robert Edsel’s Remember Us left me transformed emotionally and uplifted with the experience of towering humanity. The Monuments Men memorialized the heroic salvation of art masterpieces; Remember Us masterfully tells the story of humble townspeople who to this day memorialize those who came from another land to free them, and fell doing so.