DVIDS:
With each passing year, Soldiers share the tales of missions past, where they have been and the events they have witnessed. Few have had the opportunity to convey moments of history where they were part of the spark and then again part of the fighting mission. For many Sea Dragons focusing forward on the future, means looking back over the 94th Army Air and Missile Defense Command’s last 10 years.
“I was in the Philippines when my branch manager called and asked me to help set up the 94th AAMDC, a need based on air and missile activity going on in the theater area of operations,” said Brig. Gen. Eric L. Sanchez, the current commanding general of 94th AAMDC.
“I was working at 1st Battalion, 62nd Air Defense Artillery, 25th Infantry Division,” shared Master Sgt. John Culver, with 94th AAMDC. “At the time 1-62nd was inactivating so I called my branch manager to find out where I was going. He said that there was this opportunity because I was an [Air Defense C41 Tactical Operations Center Enhanced Operator Maintainer]. They were standing up an AAMDC at Fort Shafter. I decided if it allowed me to stay in Hawaii that I would do it.
“At the request of the first sergeant and commander at the time, I selected 16 additional [Air Defense C41 Tactical Operations Center Enhanced Operator Maintainers] from the battalion that were willing to go there and then I reported to Fort Shafter.”
After the inactivation of the 94th Air Defense Artillery Brigade in Germany, the Army officially activated the 94th Army Air and Missile Defense Command on October 16, 2005 at Fort Shafter, Hawaii, under Headquarters, United States Army Pacific, to provide air and missile defense support under the Pacific Command.
The ceremony marked the activation of the third Army Air and Missile Defense Command in the U.S. Army, two in the active component and one in the reserve component.
“The unit was reactivated in Hawaii as an AAMDC, as a one star headquarters,” said Sanchez. “When we first stood up the entire headquarters moved into Building 334 at Fort Shafter, while the headquarters building was being renovated. If I remember correctly, it was condemned at the time so there was a lot of renovations that were needed.”
“We were relocated right across from the PX [Post Exchange] but for the first six months it was assembling office furniture and finding out what to do,” said Culver. “We didn’t know what an AAMDC did.”
The Soldiers soon discovered that the planning aspect was only a portion of the new task.
“It was a big learning curve,” explained Culver. “Being in a tactical environment my entire career and then coming to the strategic level was like getting your masters in air defense because now I was no longer worried about the placement of launchers, I was worried about the entire concept plan for the Pacific. It was really upper-level planning that I had never been around before.”
The Soldiers may have assumed that during the activation of the unit, their main concerns would be where their office or desk would be but the operational tempo proved that their new assignment would not be that simple…
