Chapter History:

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The Santa Cruz Valley Chapter (AZ-193) is the smallest of the five operational Arizona Chapters and was officially chartered by the MOWW on 24 October 1985. Its founding membership was originally comprised of a combined estimated cadre of 40 fellow commissioned and warrant officers recruited from then existing sister Chapters and recruited additional new Chapter members from nearby neighboring local rural and urban area military installations and the local retired military community residing in southern Arizona at the time. These included recruiting fellow Chapter companions and newly recruited qualifying members from the surrounding local communities throughout Tucson, Sahuarita, Green Valley, Tubac, Rio Rico, Nogales and Santo Tomas. The Chapter’s first commander was Companion William A. Gill, Major, USAF (RET), who is also credited with organizing the initial membership Cadre of officers and subsequently founding the Santa Cruz Valley Chapter in Green Valley, which is located along the I-19 north-south corridor (south of Tucson) spanning all the way to the Nogales, Arizona international Arizona-Mexico border region 75 miles to the south.

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Chapter Focus and Activities: 

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Since its initial chartering, this non-profit organization has maintained a membership strength between 40 to 50 living fellow companions at any given time - having achieved a maximum peak Chapter membership recruitment high point of 63 listed living companions in the mid 1990s. The Santa Cruz Valley Chapter currently lists 82 total Chapter members - acknowledging both living and deceased perpetual and regular memberships. The MOWW validates Perpetual memberships, even after the passing of the fellow companion, as a personal tribute to their memory and dedicated loyalty to selfless service ideals in perpetuity. As such, every perpetual Chapter fellow companion continues to be listed as a Chapter member in good standing of the MOWW even after their passing, for organizational administrative purposes and out of respect for their service to the Order.

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Chapter Services and Membership:

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Predicated on the MOWW motto belief and premise that - “It is nobler to serve than to be served” the Santa Cruz Valley Chapter is dedicated to two “core” missions - that of first and foremost preserving the fraternal bonds with all those fellow companions who have served and continue to serve our great nation dedicating their personal lives to "servant leadership" and "individual selfless service" after fulfilling a full military service career and secondly to propagate all those ideals highlighted in the MOWW Constitutional Preamble that serve to sustain and secure our national security, defense, preparedness and national resolve. As such, we believe and are committed to celebrating yesterday’s and today’s heroes and in nurturing tomorrow’s future leaders to come – through continuous investment and support of all community efforts to inspire, guide, mentor and motivate our youth – for they hold the potential, promise and hope in carrying on the great legacy of our patriotic service to our nation in the foreseeable future. The Santa Cruz Valley Chapter supports a myriad of local patriotic education-based community service programs and activities. We are very proud of the contribution and all of our fellow veteran service organization "community partners” and their respective roles in the community who demonstrate a like-minded active military and civilian affiliate service philosophy and engagement strategy and who congregate with the MOWW to celebrate our proud national pride as fellow citizens and help acknowledge active contributors to the timeless ideals of life, liberty and the eternal pursuit of personal freedoms. Contact Marlon Ruiz, Lt. Colonel, USAF (RET) - Chapter Commander at (520) 780-7107 or by email at: marlon.ruiz@earthlink.net to request a Chapter sponsorship membership application.