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Army activates first air and missile defense detachment

By Spc. Jeanine Kinville
September 29, 2004

WIESBADEN, Germany (Army News Service, Sept. 29, 2004) -- The Army's first air and missile defense command and control detachment was activated here by 1st Armored Division at McCully Barracks Sept. 16.

The activation came a day after the division's 1st Battalion, 4th Air Defense Artillery was inactivated.

"The detachment is the initial wave of more detachments that will spring up throughout the Army in an effort to restructure," said Maj. Adrian Stocker, the new detachment's commander.

"This is part of the Department of Defense's initiative to balance the fighting force."

A small contingent of Soldiers formerly assigned to 1/4th ADA comprises the new detachment.

Other Soldiers from the inactivated unit were either reassigned throughout the Army or given a reclassification to another Military Occupational Specialty before the detachment was activated.

"The families affected by the inactivation of 1/4th ADA were notified approximately six months prior and given help with everything from visas to pets," said Stocker. "For Soldiers who stayed in the new detachment, their families' situations remained the same."

Even though the detachment is small, officials said its mission isn't. The unit serves as the advisor to the division commanding general, Maj. Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, on all air and missile defense matters and provides early-warning and airspace management tasks.

"We are air defenders first," said Stocker. "We are ready for any mission."

"The mission of the detachment also provides the same objective as 1/4th ADA did: to provide an air picture for the division," said 1st Lt. Daniel Shane, the former Headquarters and Headquarters Battery, 1/4th ADA executive officer and now the new detachment's executive officer.

This representation of the airspace in the division's area of operations is read by the early-warning systems operators who work in the sentinel radar section and the air defense and airspace management section, to determine if what they see belongs to enemy or friendly forces.

"We track everything that is in the air," said Shane. "I think it is a big part of operations. An air picture is always necessary (whether) it's friend or foe."

The detachment is an interim organization, said Stocker. It is multifunctional in overlooking the air and missile defense in the division's area of operations in training or combat environments.

"I think the detachment benefits the division because it keeps an ADA presence," said Stocker.

In the event of operations requiring additional air defenders, the detachment will assist in receiving and integrating additional forces into the division.

"We would be the link between the extra forces and the division," said Staff Sgt. Lance Norenberg, an operations sergeant in the detachment. "Our job would be to help them understand the mission to support the division."

For now though, Stocker said the detachment will watch the skies and help lead the way for similar units that will form soon in the Army.

"It is fitting that we have named the unit the "Sentinels," said Stocker. "In its purest definition it means 'vigilant guard.' We are the few who protect the many."

(Editor's note: Spc. Jeanine Kinville serves with V Corps Public Affairs.)