94th AAMDC Briefs Secretary of the Army John McHugh on Its Mission

By Sgt. Louis Lamar, 94th AAMDC Public AffairsJuly 23, 2013

94th AAMDC Briefs Secretary of the Army John McHugh on Its Mission
Brig. Gen. Daniel Karbler (left), the commander of 94th Army Air and
Missile Defense Command escorts Secretary of the Army John McHugh (right)
to the 613th Air and Operations Center located on Joint Base Pearl
Harbor-Hickam for an interactive overvi... (Photo Credit: U.S. Army)
VIEW ORIGINAL

FORT SHAFTER-- With the United States Army's growing strategic role in the Pacific region, Secretary of the Army John McHugh was at the 94th Army Air and Missile Defense Command 16 July, where he was briefed on the unit's successful deployment of a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense System to Guam.

"The men and women of the 94th AAMDC provide our nation and the region with a critical strategic capability," McHugh said. "Their efforts strengthen our defenses for American citizens in the U.S. Territory of Guam and U.S. forces stationed there."

Brig. Gen. Daniel Karbler, the 94th AAMDC commanding general, briefed McHugh on the 94th AAMDC's role in supporting the rebalance in the Pacific.

"THAAD is an example of the type of mobile, re-locatable missile defense capability that makes it possible to move assets from one region to another in time of crisis, which is important to our National Military Strategy," McHugh said.

Capt. Stephen Mercer, a sensor manager for the 94th AAMDC, provided an interactive overview of the mission of the sensor management cell located within the 613th Air Operations Cell at Hickam Airbase.

"The Sensor Management Cell is an integral element of the Integrated Air and Missile Defense (IAMD) Cell within the AOC. On a day to day basis, we pull crew shifts 24 hours, seven days a week and are Non Commissioned Officers are widely recognized as subject matter experts on ballistic missile defense for the entire theater," said Mercer.

Earlier this year, McHugh noted the Army's leadership in missile defense during Congressional testimony on the President's 2013 U.S. Army Budget Request meeting. "As we develop jointly into our new (national defense) strategy, the Army has expertise in those missile defense platforms and if we can fulfill an expanded role in that mission that would be something that we would want to pursue very anxiously," McHugh said.

The 94th AAMDC continues to expand and build partnership capacity across the Pacific theater to ensure U.S. forces; allies and partners are trained and ready to defeat the current and future air and missile threat.