Photo By Cpl. Justin Malone | The family of Illinois Army National Guard Chief Warrant Officer 4 Chris Murdoch...... read more read more
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Illinois Army National Guard Chief Warrant Officer 4 Chris Murdoch, an Air and Missile Defense Systems Integrator Warrant Officer with the 404th Maneuver Enhancement Brigade of Normal, retired after 30 years of military service during a ceremony at the Illinois National Guard’s Normal Readiness Center in Normal, Illinois on Nov. 5.
Murdoch was presented a proclamation celebrating his long career of service to his country and community by Illinois State Representative Dan Brady. Col. Kevin Little, commander of the 404th Maneuver Enhancement Brigade, presented Murdoch with a Meritorious Service Medal upon his retirement.
Murdoch comes from a military family. His maternal grandfather fought in the trenches in World War I. His father was a career naval officer and all of his uncles save one served in the U.S. Navy.
Murdoch enlisted in the Navy in 1982 as a way to see the world. After graduating Navy basic training at Great Lakes Naval Training Center in North Chicago he attended training as an aviation electrician’s mate at the Naval Air Training Center in Millington, Tenn., followed by Aircrew Candidate School at Naval Air Station Pensacola in Pensacola, Fla. He then attended Rescue Swimmer School at Naval Air Station North Island in California.
Murdoch joined his first squadron, Helicopter Combat Support Squadron One in 1984 as a Sikorsky SH-3G Sea King helicopter crew chief and rescue swimmer. He transferred to HC-1 Detachment 6 onboard the USS Blue Ridge (LCC-19) in 1987. While serving there Murdoch accumulated 1,500 hours of helicopter flight time.
In 1990 Murdoch volunteered to attend Flight Engineer training for the Boeing E-6A Mercury Airborne Command Post and Communication Relay aircraft and joined Fleet Air Reconnaissance Squadron Three (VQ-3) at Naval Air Station Barbers Point, Hawaii. While attached to VQ-3, he accumulated more than 1,840 hours of multi-engine heavy jet crew time.
The collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War caused Murdoch to reexamine the way his career and life were going.
“At that point promotion was almost not an option,” Murdoch said. “If you wanted to get promoted, someone ahead of you had to literally die. So, I had to take a hard look at what my career was going to be. I reluctantly left the Navy.”
Following the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, Murdoch once again felt the urge to serve his country. A friend convinced him to look into joining the National Guard.
Murdoch spoke with a recruiter and asked about joining with a guaranteed officer candidate school contract, but was informed that he was too old. However, the recruiter asked if he would be interested in being a warrant officer instead of a commissioned officer. He submitted a warrant officer packet and was assigned to the 33rd Military Police Battalion Headquarters Detachment.
While waiting for the packet to be processed, the 33rd MP Battalion was activated and deployed to Iraq where Murdoch served as the Property Book Noncommissioned Officer from June 2006 to Sept. 2007
After returning from Iraq, Murdoch attended the Warrant Officer Candidate School at Fort Rucker, Ala., and was pinned as a warrant officer in June 2008. Shortly after returning to Illinois Murdoch was called to flood duty as part of the 232nd Combat Sustainment Support Battalion. He led over 100 Soldiers and Airmen on the Mississippi River near Pleasant Hill in 2008
Kathy Murdoch, Chris Murdoch’s spouse, said she visited her husband and some of his subordinates while they were working. They all went out to eat at the one local restaurant. All the locals came up and thanked them.
“It was humbling as a wife,” Kathy Murdoch said. “Yeah, it was a pain in the butt having my husband gone for the three weeks you were gone and smelling like a manure pile and mud and muck. But it was worth it, him doing that. That’s what the National Guard does. It goes in and helps.”
CW4 Murdock continued to serve, joining the 404th Maneuver Enhancement Brigade in 2010 during its transition from a chemical brigade based in Chicago to a maneuver enhancement brigade and its eventual relocation to Normal.
During his time in the National Guard, he has participated in over a dozen Warfighter exercises, as well as numerous other training activities. His unique dual expertise as both a 251A Army Information Systems Technician and as a 140A Air and Missile Defense (AMD) Systems Integrator Warrant Officer is rare and valuable. He participated in international exercises in Poland, South Korea, and Malawi and has supported numerous National Guard units, both inside and outside Illinois with his Air Defense and ADA C2 Systems Integration knowledge and expertise.
In 2020, Murdoch deployed to Ukraine for over 10 months as part of the Joint Multinational Training Group-Ukraine. While there he provided doctrinal assistance to the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
“Which as we all know they’re getting it done over there,” Murdoch said. “So it’s good for me to know that I played a small part in that.”
| Date Taken: | 11.05.2022 |
| Date Posted: | 11.07.2022 12:16 |
| Story ID: | 432787 |
| Location: | NORMAL, IL, US |
| Web Views: | 185 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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