A DOD press release about Alaska Guards' 49th Missile Defense Battalion

[Lucinda]

for those interested in researching that angle...

http://www.defenselink.mil/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=2483


Alaska Guard Troops Conduct Vital Missile Defense Mission
By Donna Miles
American Forces Press Service

FORT GREELY, Alaska, Dec. 20, 2006 – Just a few years ago, this snow-swept central Alaskan post lay dormant, closed through the Base Realignment and Closure process. But today it’s up and running again at full speed, serving as the epicenter of the United States’ Ground-Based Midcourse Defense program.

Eleven ground-based interceptor missiles buried in underground silos here represent a key part of a multi-layered defense system designed to protect the United States from a ballistic missile attack. These interceptors, and two more at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., would destroy incoming missiles at the “midcourse phase,” outside the earth’s atmosphere.

In the event of an attack, members of the Alaska Army National Guard’s 49th Missile Defense Battalion based here would use sophisticated surveillance and radar systems to track the missile through its initial boost phase, explained Maj. Joe Miley, the unit’s operations officer. If the missile reached the midcourse phase, the Alaska Guardsmen would await the order to engage it...

MUCH more at link above...