DVIDS:
ANDERSEN AIR FORCE BASE, Guam – As members of Task Force Talon, the Guam-based Terminal High Altitude Area Defense-centric unit tasked to defend Guam against ballistic missile attacks, along with their joint and interagency teammates watched the great C-17 cargo plane disappear into the clouds above Andersen Air Force Base, Guam Nov. 5, 2015, they knew they had done something special, even historic.
According to Mr. Donnie Puett, logistics management specialist, THAAD Project Office, the team had just completed “the largest shipment of missiles to and from a deployed location at one time in THAAD history.” The purpose of the operation was to replace the entire stock of Task Force THAAD interceptors to maintain operational readiness.
There were only two months between receipt of the tasking during the first week in September and mission completion in early November. In between those dates was an intense, compressed period of planning, logistics preparation and training.
Task Force Talon, comprised of around 200 Soldiers, is one-third the size of a traditional air defense Patriot battalion but the quality of personnel in the Task Force and their readiness to accept the mission is unequaled according to Lt. Col. Jefferey A. Slown, commander, Task Force Talon, 94th Army Air and Missile Defense Command. He stated, “Regardless of the mission, the whole Task Force is resilient enough to accomplish any task given them. As I always tell visitors [to the TF], ‘what we don’t have in quantity, we make up for in quality and this interceptor operation was one example of that.’”
No matter the mission, the Task Force Soldiers maintain a fearless “can-do” attitude. However, as with other tasks, there would be no “can-do” without the support of joint partners and key enablers.
