Last night, NBC Nightly News, hosted by Lester Holt on primetime national news, did a focus piece on the ballistic missile defense system of our nation out of Ft. Greely, Alaska with the 49th Missile Defense Battalion (MDB), “the 300 defending 300 million,” and featured the 100th Missile Defense Brigade Commander, Colonel Kevin Kick. We had the opportunity to help support NBC with the background information for this story to provide a well-balanced piece that educates the American Public on this critical “no fail” mission.

This mission, these interceptors, and the soldiers of the 49th MDB under the Command and joint team of NORTHCOM, have enabled a potential historic, “deal of the century,” summit next week between North Korea and the United States, that could ultimately result in a peace accord with North Korea, South Korea, the United States, and China to officially end the Korean War and begin the denuclearization of the Peninsula that comes with it. The GBIs and soldiers of the 49th MDB in Alaska are also there to double down in defense of the entire North American population should the deal break and North Korea goes in unintended directions. Furthermore, the GBIs and the 49th MDB are the backstop for Iranian consequences resulting from the U.S. withdrawal from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which today now sees Iran announcing it will complete – within a month – a facility to build advanced centrifuges for its Natanz nuclear plant to increase its uranium enrichment capacity if the Iran Deal completely collapses.

We were honored last month in Alaska and last week in Colorado to highlight the importance of this critical mission and recognize the Alpha Crew of the 49th MDB, similar to the Charlie crew shown in NBC’s video.

MDAA was at Ft. Greely, Alaska in July 2004 when the first GBI was emplaced and there again most recently in January with the now 40 GBIs deployed. We believe, as our President, our Congress, our Department of Defense, and our Allies do, that the United States of America is defended with confidence and reliability from the current ballistic missile threat from North Korea.

Ballistic missile defense for our nation is primetime.