'The 300' defend our skies

Courtesy Photo | Staff Sgt. Norman Perkins of the California Army National Guard's Detachment 1, 100th Missile Defense Brigade, accepts the Missile Defender of the Year Award from the nonprofit Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance on Jan. 10 in Alexandria, Virginia.  

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, CA, UNITED STATES

02.19.2015

Story by Brandon Honig 

California National Guard Primary   

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. - The men and women of the 100th Missile Defense Brigade (MDB) live by the motto "300 Soldiers protecting 300 million Americans," and with a responsibility that great - a no-fail mission that citizens unwittingly rely on every day for their lives - missile defenders take their jobs very seriously.

"We're on standby to make sure nothing happens to our country," California Army National Guard Staff Sgt. Norman Perkins said. "On Saturday night at 2 a.m., [I'm] sitting in a 15-by-15 [foot] room with no windows thinking, 'I wonder if anything will happen tonight' - and you hope it doesn't. Your best day is when nothing happens."

"The 300" are spread across three states - California, Alaska and Colorado - including 14 Soldiers of the California Army National Guard who are stationed at Vandenberg Air Force Base, roughly midway between Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo. Though the California contingent makes up less than 5 percent of the 100th Missile Defense Brigade, those Guardsmen have already made a big impact on the missile defense world, with two members of Detachment 1, 100th MDB, holding the prestigious Missile Defender of the Year Award, which has been presented only five times by the nonprofit Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance.

"I was given the award, but quite honestly it's a team effort," Perkins said a week after the Jan. 10 awards ceremony in Alexandria, Virginia. "The award and the coin and all that, I showed it to my team members and said, 'Alright, now we've got two winners here at Vandenberg, so next year one of you all needs to go win it.' We've got a lot of great people here working together."

Vandenberg's other winner, Staff Sgt. Aric Wilkins, is a newcomer to Detachment 1, having won the Missile Defender of the Year Award in 2012 as a member of the Alaska National Guard. The two have become well-acquainted since Wilkins joined the Cal Guard in May, partly because Wilkins took over Perkins' old job as the detachment's training noncommissioned officer (NCO).

With that off his plate, Perkins now only serves as the unit's administrative NCO, family readiness coordinator and master resilience trainer. That is, of course, in addition to his primary role as a command launch equipment (CLE) operator.

"Unlike a unit that would have 100 to 200 people and have a [personnel section, intelligence section, training and operations section, supply section, et cetera], we make up all those," Perkins said. "On an annual basis, [Detachment Commander] Capt. [Juan] Andrini has to look at all the things we need to accommodate and who needs to be in which roles, and we rotate through them so we all get training."

"Wearing these dual hats has created a lot of learning experiences for me," Perkins added, "and it's one of the reasons I believe I was nominated this year and awarded this great honor."

Wilkins, who knows a little something about the award, agreed that Perkins' well-rounded resume and tireless work ethic earned him the recognition.

"He does his job, he knows his job, and he has gone above and beyond to help any of us out with any issues we might have had," Wilkins said of his colleague. "[Earning the award] is about taking the time to teach new Soldiers, dig in and study all the aspects of your job and show that willingness to learn and go the extra mile."

"There is so much detail and so many different scenarios that could possibly happen," Wilkins said, "and when something happens, it is quick. You need to know exactly what to do and do it."

Missile defense is a highly technical and demanding field, and the schools missile defenders attend are very intense, Perkins said. One class, for instance, requires soldiers to figure out how their computer system computes the trajectory of a Ground-Based Interceptor missile.

"Unlike a traditional military school, where they teach you something like how to tear apart a tank and put it together, the [missile defense] school teaches you how the system works - how it takes information from sensors around the world and compiles the information and how the parts interrelate. Then, when you get to your duty station, they teach you your actual role."

Perkins, a Florida native who joined the active duty Army as a track mechanic in 1986 and later enlisted in the Army Reserve as a wheel mechanic, is now making use of his fifth military occupational specialty. He joined the Florida National Guard in 2004 as part of a multiple-launch-rocket-system unit and was selected in 2009 for an Active Guard Reserve job in Alaska, where he began working in missile defense.

The institutional knowledge Perkins brought with him from Alaska is invaluable, Andrini said, as it makes him a jack-of-all-missile-defense-trades. Even more valuable, though, the commander said, are Perkins' initiative and dedication. He pointed to Perkins' work on the CLE mission, which the detachment just received last year, as an example.

"He's been a pioneer in transitioning us to that additional mission. He developed standard operating procedures and a checklist, and he helped train the rest of us to work in that position," Andrini said, noting that 11 of the detachment's 14 members are currently qualified CLE operators.

Perkins also has shown his above-and-beyond attitude in his role as administrative NCO, identifying several Soldiers who have earned commendations - many of which the Soldiers themselves did not know they had earned - and processing the paperwork. He also frequently organizes morale, welfare and recreation events, and he has spearheaded a number of charitable initiatives involving the detachment and the surrounding community.

"He's constantly going, like the Energizer Bunny," Andrini said. "All the time, I have to tell him to go home. But [to him] it's all about selfless service."

• Date Taken: 02.19.2015
• Date Posted: 02.19.2015 12:14
• Story ID: 154863
• Location: VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, CA, US