Dear Members and Friends,

MDAA had the privilege of hosting the Honolulu Breakfast of Champions at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel in Waikiki, Hawaii. The featured speakers included; Captain Matawitz, the Captain of the CG-73 Port Royal Aegis cruiser, Dave Jensen, the CEO of Aleut Corporation and Mr. Richard Ritter, the Missile Defense Agency’s deputy program director of the Command and Control, Battle Management and Communications program.

In addition, a few of the National Football League’s All Pro Defensive players and John Fox, the head coach of the Carolina Panthers had the opportunity to tour, learn, interact and inspire the sailors and the users of the two sea based missile defense platforms anchored in Pearl Harbor, The Aegis Cruiser Port Royal (CG-73) and the Sea Based X Band Radar (SBX-1). Captain Matawitz of the Port Royal and Lt. Colonel Bush of the SBX-1 welcomed the NFL to their respective vessels and crew as well as educated them on their capabilities.

The appearance of the players greatly improved the morale of the men and women fighting to protect our homeland. An inspiration to both crews, especially the Port Royal, as the ship will sail for the Persian Gulf in the next week.

We at MDAA also recognize the importance of the state of Hawaii as it comes to missile defense. Not only are the current deployed sea based missile defense interceptors (SM3s) stored in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii provides port for the Aegis Cruisers that will house those missiles and the Aegis Cruisers that are equipped with Spy-1 upgraded radars that will provide tracking and discrimination. Most importantly, Hawaii has the Pacific Missile Range Facility (PMRF) located in the island of Kauai which reaches into the vast Pacific Ocean. The PMRF offers realistic testing of Aegis Platforms that include their missiles and sensors, forward based X band radars, and will also be the new test site for the Theater High Altitude Air Defense (THAAD) system that will offer a much more robust coverage that will defend wider areas in supplement to our deployed Pac 3s and Pac 2 units placed around the world protecting our troops and allies.\r\n\r\nThis critical and important part of missile defense could not have been possible with out the leadership and commitment of the Hawaiian Senator Mr. Daniel K. Inouye, a Democrat and members of the Hawaiian delegation notably Representative Neil Abercrombie, also a Democrat.

Thank you for making the state of Hawaii and our world a safer place.

Mahalo a nui loa,