Between World War I and World War II, the Naval Reserve Officers Association (NROA) fought successfully for a strong Reserve Force to augment the Regular Navy. At the end of World War II, Secretary of the Navy James Forrestal sponsored the Reserve Officers of the Naval Service (RONS), a group made up of Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard Reserve officers. In 1946, RONS combined with the Naval Reserve Officers Association to form RONS-NROA.

In 1948, RONS-NROA merged into the older Army-only Reserve Officers Association (ROA), which in keeping with the spirit of unification of the Armed Forces, ultimately expanded to include all seven uniformed services. However, it became apparent that an organization was still needed that would speak exclusively for the Navy, Naval Reserve, and Naval Reserve officers. In 1954 with encouragement and support from many senior regular Navy officers, forty-three Naval Reserve officers founded the Naval Reserve Association. The subsequent dynamic growth of the NRA (to more than 25,000) indicates that an exceptionally large number of Naval Reserve officers endorse and support the views of those Founders. Further evidence of this endorsement
is a membership renewal rate of more than 85 percent. The Naval Reserve Association was incorporated in the District of Columbia in 1954 as a veterans organization.

AUSN is a product of the past several years, as the Naval Reserve became more fully integrated in the fleet (and the USN moved into a part-time, full-time force). The continuing need for a larger support and lobby group for the entire US Navy became even more apparent. AUSN includes officers, enlisted personnel, and Navy Department civilians in its membership. While the USN has never advocated any lobby group, the Department has yet to refuse a single warship, submarine, aircraft, or dollar added by the US Congress at the urging of either NRA or AUSN.