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Bob Neilan, a retired Army colonel, left, and Don Spiece,a retired Army lieutenant colonel, are local members of the Association of the U.S. Army.
Benjie Sanders / arizona daily star
Did you know
The U.S. Army had a presence in Tucson in the early 1860s, and in 1866 established Camp Lowell on the outskirts of town, on site of today's Armory Park on South Sixth Avenue.
The location was not the best. The tent camp was too close to Tucson's saloons and unsavory places, and the location posed unhealthy conditions.
In March 1873, the Army moved the camp northeast to the Rillito River where water, grazing and wood were more plentiful. In 1879, the camp was rechristened Fort Lowell. It closed in 1891.

Tucson Region

Neto's Tucson by Ernesto Portillo Jr.: Air Force a big presence here, but Army's left a big mark, too

By Ernesto Portillo Jr.
Arizona Daily Star
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 04.27.2008
With the longtime presence — and dominance — of blue-clad personnel and silvery aircraft at Davis-Monthan, Tucson is considered an Air Force town.
But not so fast. The Army has a deeper footprint than Davis-Monthan Air Force Base.
Now this isn't intended to start an intra-service squabble, but retired Army officers, Col. Bob Neilan and Lt. Col. Donald Spiece Jr. want Tucson to know Army personnel are a big part of Tucson and have been for nearly 150 years.
"We love the Air Force because we fight our nation's conflicts as one team," Spiece said. "We are glad that finally the Air Force got around to joining us here."
It's just some intra-service ribbing. But when it comes to supporting Army matters, Neilan and Spiece are serious.
They are members of the Goyette-Tucson chapter of the Association of the U.S. Army, known as AUSA. The national organization supports legislation and services for active and retired Army personnel.
The Tucson chapter was formed in 1960 and named after C. Edgar Goyette, a post-World War II civic booster who helped bring Hughes Aircraft to Tucson and telescopes to Kitt Peak.
He also was active with AUSA and, for good measure and intra-service camaraderie, the Tucson chapter of the Air Force Association.
Over its near 50 years, the chapter has helped local Army personnel and their families raise funds for wounded soldiers and send goodies and gifts to soldiers on the front lines. The group also has encouraged students to consider the Army as a career.
But the chapter, which is about 250 members strong, supported by 19 local businesses, has embarked on a much larger campaign.
The Tucson group is helping raise funds to build the National Museum of the U.S. Army in Northern Virginia, not far from Mount Vernon, the home of George Washington, the country's first commander in chief.
"There is no national museum dedicated to the Army," said Spiece, president of the Tucson chapter and a 1976 graduate of West Point.
The Army Historical Foundation, a non-profit group, seeks to raise $200 million.
The museum would present the Army's history from Colonial days to the present. It would serve as the flagship to the 43 regional Army museums found on U.S. Army bases.
More than that, the museum would "honor the men and women who served their country and inspired others to do the same," said Neilan, who served two combat tours in Vietnam and was the inspector general for the Washington State National Guard.
"The history of the Army is the history of our country," said Neilan, a past president of the chapter.
Tucson ASUA members will solicit money from Army veterans, local businesses and the public. In addition, the chapters will lobby state lawmakers to enact legislation in which Arizona would contribute $2 to the museum for each Army veteran in the state.
With an estimated 256,346 Army veterans in Arizona, the state could give $512,692, Spiece said.
Although the museum is important to the local chapter, Spiece and Neilan said the Tucson group won't lose sight of its main mission to help local Army personnel and their families.
The Goyette-Tucson chapter recently gave phone cards totaling 3,000 minutes to members of the 1st Battalion, 285th Aviation Regiment, which deployed to Afghanistan in January 2007.
The regiment is an attack helicopter unit based at Silverbell Army Heliport in Marana.
In addition, the AUSA group has sent care packages to the regiment and has helped the Tucson families in their social events.
The chapter will take money from anyone, including U.S. Marines.
"I have Marine buddies who will contribute," Neilan said. "But it depends how many beers I buy."
● Reporter Ernesto "Neto" Portillo Jr. has deep roots here. His maternal grandparents came to Tucson in 1931. His maternal great-great-grandfather, Argentine-born Onofre Navarro, lived in Tucson beginning in the 1860s. Portillo can be contacted at 573-4242 or eportillo@azstarnet.com.
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