Army Chief of Public Affairs to address NPC's American Legion Post 20 on Sept. 20

Army Brig. Gen. Omar J. Jones, chief of public affairs, plans to be the guest speaker at a luncheon meeting of National Press Club's American Legion Post 20 at noon on Wednesday, Sept. 20, in the McClendon Room.

The speaker portion of the meeting is open to all Club members.

Gen. Jones plans to address the Army’s public affairs challenges and priorities.

A career Army infantry officer, Jones is new to the public affairs job, having assumed his current position July 11. Before moving to his current position, he was deputy commanding general for Operations of the 7th Infantry Division at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington. He is a 1992 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy and a veteran of combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. He holds a master’s degree in Public Administration from Harvard University.

Post 20 has an illustrious Army-related lineage, having been founded in 1919 at the urging of Gen. John J. “Black Jack” Pershing. At the time, Gen. Pershing was serving in Washington and was an associate member of Club. Pershing was Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force in World War I and went on to become Chief of Staff of the Army in 1921. In its early years, Post 20 was also known as the "Pershing Post" or the "Black Jack" Post.