January 19, 2022 [link removed] copy and paste this link to read the alert on MDAA's website. Follow and Support MDAA ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ MDAA Alert Excellence Enables Excellence January 19, 2022 Bringing honor to the 2021 Missile Defenders of the Year, from Alexandria VA, January 14, 2022. Dear members and friends, At the core of our competency is the cauldron of excellence as we recognize our Nation’s best Missile Defenders of the year across our Military Services. We host this event here in Alexandria, Virginia, annually, on the commemoration of the first operational missile defense intercept of a hostile missile, twenty years ago, in Saudi Arabia by the United States with a Patriot missile defense battery on January 18, 1991. The award winners, stationed across the world, are selected by their respective Military Service and are chosen for their performances of excellence in Missile Defense over the past 12 months. We honored them at the residence of the first American President as they presented a wreath on the tomb of President George Washington at Mount Vernon. Later in the evening each of our 2021 Award recipients were introduced by their Service Representative and acknowledged by the Missile Defense Community. This past Friday, our 12th Missile Defender of the Year ceremony took place. It is the first ceremony to introduce the United States Space Force’s Guardian Missile Defender of the year, Technical Sergeant X. Victor Kearney, amongst the founding Services; the U.S. Army, Sergeant First Class Matthew Crain, the U.S. National Guard, Chief Warrant Officer 2 Jeremy Howard, the U.S. Navy, Lieutenant Kristen Ringwall, and the U.S. Air Force, Major Robert Heath Matthews. Excellence enables Excellence and Winners associate with Winners to Win. The resilience, the resolve, and the Grit to overcome the adverse conditions of the world this past year to make our Nation and the World Safer is remarkable, genuine, and of Valor. These five remarkable American Missile Defenders are representative of the current missile defense systems deployed and reflect the current challenges and priorities of the missile threat to the United States and its allies across the globe. It is their joint invincibility and leadership as a group, as a team, and as a unified command that gives our Nation and the World confidence and reliability in the Missile Defense mission to sustain peace, deter combat, and preserve the status quo of our way of life. We are honored to introduce the 2021 Missile Defenders of the Year. They were presented by CSM John Foley, Lt. Gen Nina Armagno, LTG Jon Jensen, and VADM Ron Boxall. The 2021 U.S. Missile Defender of the Year Awardees Sergeant First Class Matthew Crain 38th Air Defense Artillery Brigade Sagamihara, Japan U.S. Army *** Technical Sergeant X. Victor Kearney U.S. Indo-Pacific Command Camp H.M. Smith, Hawaii U.S. Space Force *** Chief Warrant Officer 2 Jeremy Howard 3rd Battalion, 265th Air Defense Artillery Regiment Florida Army National Guard U.S. Army National Guard *** Lieutenant Kristen Ringwall USS Howard (DDG-83) Yokosuka, Japan U.S. Navy *** Major Robert Heath Matthews 603d Air Operations Center Ramstein Air Force Base, Germany U.S. Air Force *** “Unfortunately, the threat we face from missiles has continued to grow and become more complex. It’s almost as if the leaders in North Korea understand the timing of this annual dinner. As if on cue, this morning North Korea announced it had launched two ballistic missiles – the third time it has launched missiles just this month… Fortunately, one other thing has also occurred as we expected since we last got together in January 2020, and that is the missile defenders in America’s military have continued to diligently stand the watch, to deter attacks on this nation, skillfully operated the complex systems their industry partners have developed, and kept us safe.”– John Rood, Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, January 14, 2022 at Alexandria, Virginia Respectfully, ‌ Riki Ellison Chairman and Founder Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance Click Here to Join MDAA _____________________________________________________________________ MDAA is a non-profit, non-partisan tax-exempt 501(c) (4) organization. Our mission is to make the world safer by advocating for the development and deployment of missile defense systems to defend the United States and its allies against missile threats. We are a membership-funded organization that does not advocate on behalf of any specific system, technology, architecture or entity. Founded in 2002, MDAA is the only organization in existence whose primary mission is to recruit, organize, and mobilize proponents to advocate for the critical need of missile defense. Visit our website www.missiledefenseadvocacy.org for more information. Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance 515 King Street, Suite 330 Alexandria, VA 22314 Phone: (703) 299-0060 Email: [email protected] Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance | 515 King Street, Suite 330, Alexandria, VA 22314 Unsubscribe [email protected] Constant Contact Data Notice Sent by [email protected] powered by Try email marketing for free today!