Who We Are

Although geographically large, the Great Rivers Chapter is most active in St Louis. Listed in its roster are nearly 1,200 members, of which a tenth are government and military. First established in the 1920s, the “St. Louis Chapter” covered the aircraft industries of the day that supported the Army. That’s still at the core, but the chapter represents many other defense products relevant to today’s defense needs. With regards to the relevance of the region to national strength, geography plays a vital role – the huge interior waterways can transport the nation’s immense agricultural and manufacturing production. That reason is the logic behind the 2014 renaming of the chapter. According to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Mississippi River alone annually carries more than 500 million tons of imports, exports, and domestic freight. It is fed by the Illinois, Missouri and Ohio Rivers in the Great Rivers footprint. By including the Red River and Tombigbee River systems in our sister chapters’ footprint, a very large portion of the nation’s area is served.

Our area is also vital in terms of manufacturing, research, and intelligence. Most are familiar with our regional aerospace hubs in St. Louis and Wichita. Some might know about the munitions industry of western Illinois and Missouri, where most of the ammunition (5.56 mm, 7.62 mm, .50 caliber, and 20 mm) used by our military is produced, as well as percussion and electric primers and pyrotechnics. Some might also recognize that just outside the gates of our bases, defense and national security research is expanding and analysis/information support companies are thriving. However, few people can talk about the work being done in Kansas City supporting the nation’s nuclear deterrence or the significance of the region to the nation’s cyber resilience.

Lastly, open conflict in Europe, as well as the nature of strategic competition and nuclear deterrence, have elevated the importance of the DoD organizations in the Great Rivers region. United States Transportation Command, headquartered at Scott Air Force Base, Illinois, is the most vital enabling component to the nation’s ability to project power, deliver aid, and respond to contingencies. The Air Force Global Strike Command’s B-2 Stealth Bombers at Whiteman Air Force Base, Missouri, along with the entire nation’s strategic assets, await orders from United States Strategic Command, which is headquartered to our north in Omaha, Nebraska. The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency’s new facility in downtown St. Louis is the center point for the Pentagon’s most advanced artificial intelligence effort, Project Maven. Each one of these vital national defense customers relies on a vast ecosystem of industry suppliers, operators, and partners. The Great Rivers Chapter represents this regional ecosystem within the broader national defense industrial base.