Dear Members and Friends,

Our United States Army Air Defense Artillery (ADA) soldiers are here in the Arabian Peninsula protecting and defending the United States forward operating forces that project power in this volatile region to defeat ISIS, stabilize Syria, help defend the GCC countries from Iran, keep open international waterways in the Arabian Gulf and defend the over 50 million people of multiple countries and tribes. U.S. Army Patriot Batteries, Maintenance Company’s, Patriot Battalion and Brigade Commands – with close to 1,500 soldiers – are responsible for the ballistic missile defense of the United States Naval Port in Bahrain, U.S. Army Headquarters in Kuwait, and U.S. and GCC air forces on bases in Jordon, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait and the UAE. These three major elements of U.S. power projection in the region provide adherence to international law, deterrence to threats, assurance for each of the GCC allies, and collectively, are absolutely vital for the stability and security of the Arabian Peninsula, the Arabian Gulf and the Middle East.

The conditions and environment are extremely harsh and challenging – with extreme heat, high humidity, isolation and severe sandstorms – that does havoc on equipment and tests the fortitude and grit of the U.S. solider. A mission that is so important, and U.S. Soldiers that are special in this particular branch, are in high demand and are under manned, which as a result still have twelve month deployments away from their families compared to the nine month deployments in other Army branches. Deployed on mostly remote air bases and isolated away from the forces they protect, with no access off their base, they live and work together in groups of 100 or so to accomplish their mission of readiness to defend 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. It is a remarkable feat of endurance, toughness, sacrifice, mental, emotional and physical strength that each of these soldiers do in this unheralded, and for the most part unnoticed mission. Each of these ADA batteries and maintenance companies deployed in the Arabian Peninsula have to work, fight and live together as a close unified team unit that requires tremendous leadership, trust and self-sacrifice for each other and their mission. A mission that has to maintain readiness to be effective in this harsh environment with complete reliance on the solider to maintain, operate, defend and command. They all deserve to be considered heroes and adulated for what most Americans could not do in their crucial role of defending 50 million people and adding stabilization to the historic volatile Middle East.

The highly complex missile defense system equipment, most notably the radars and secondly the durability of the power generators, are challenged by this same weather environment unique to Arabia. The maintainers who are non-commissioned officers (NCOs) – led by Warrant Officers – who know these systems inside and out are the most critical component in readiness of the air and missile defense mission on the Arabian Peninsula. There have been both ingenious and fundamental applications to enhance the reliability of the equipment, from the simplicity of providing overhead shade shelter, to the complexity of adapting piped in air conditioning cooling for the radars. With the wear and tear of parts to the systems that may happen at a faster pace due to the environment, it is the stockpiling of those parts and getting those parts that are not ordered and replaced as soon as possible that remains critical for readiness. A unique partnership and team has formed in the UAE with the United States, where the UAE Patriot Units – which have newer systems and more abundance of them – are able to provide spare parts that are more available and quicker to replace to the U.S Patriot units. Sharing of parts is a true value of allied partnership capacity building that increases readiness for the overall mission and one that should be emulated.

It was a true honor and privilege to be with the soldiers of the 3-2 ADA Battalion and its two Patriot Batteries in the UAE and be able to recognize their selfless service, their importance and value to the safety of 50 million people in the Middle East and their sacrifice of a twelve month deployment for our nation and the freedoms we have.