At Joint Base Andrews, MD, last Friday night on May 15th, 2026, we honored and recognized 13 awardees of the National Guard in their noble and sacred mission of defending the National Capital Region (NCR) from air threats for this past year. MDAA hosted our 89th Missile Defender of the Year (MDOY) and marked a milestone of over 1,000 MDOY award recipients.
The missile defense of the NCR, our United States Capital was formed as a result of 9/11 and became operational as we withdrew from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty in 2002. Our Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance was formed and founded that same year as was Missile Defense Agency, our Ground Based Missile System for the ICBM defense of all 50 states, and the creation of NORTHCOM. We were all aligned and remain aligned, driven from the requirements to defend our Nation from missile attack. Our collective development and advocacy over the past 24 years has evolved from the defense of drone, cruise, ballistic, hypersonic glide vehicles to the Presidential executive order establishing the Golden Dome of America (GDA) last year. The NCR will be one of the first and critical key operational deployments of Golden Dome in 2028 under a limited defense area defense system (LADS).
The LADS NCR will fit under the Under Layer that provides Ballistic Missile and Hypersonic Glide Vehicle Defense. The Under Layer fits under the Space Layer that has Midcourse defense with NGI and GBI and Space-Based Boost Phase Missile Defense. There are tremendous amounts of resources supporting all of these layers, and significant processes are being changed or eliminated to quickly deploy and increase the capabilities and capacity of sensors/effectors/C2 for this National Mandate. The Missile Defense Mission is changing dramatically.
The fundamental core element of success and winning culture in this momentous endeavor is the people involved; they are the most important and most critical asset to have a successful GDA. We honored and recognized our best of the best in the Missile Defense mission for their relentless mission of defending the United States NCR. We honored the Non-Commissioned Officers (NCOs) that are of the very root and core of this great vital mission to defend our Nation, our Constitution and our Capital.
Our tradition of recognizing our best in this critical mission runs deep, embedded in a history of integrity and honor in the Missile Defense mission. The MDOY Award ceremony began in January 2011, to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the first operational Patriot missile defense intercept on January 18, 1991. MDAA has honored and awarded 1,102 Awardees at 89 total Defender of the Year Award ceremonies. This MDOY ceremony was ominous, as the National Guard has the missile defense mission of the United States Homeland. The National Guard is the Service to man and operate the Golden Dome for America, transforming the manpower required for our current legacy systems across the Layers to a much lesser manpower state for the upcoming automation for the Golden Dome for America.
We celebrate our 13 newest Missile Defense Warriors from the National Guard defending our NCR to the over a thousand MDOY awardees, advancing the culture and legacy of the missile defense mission to make our nation and the world safer.
At this event, we were honored to have in attendance Major General Richard Wholey, Commander of 263rd Army Air and Missile Defense Command; Major General Mark “Pied” Piper, Golden Dome Liaison for U.S Northern Command; Brigadier General Andrew Rendon, Commanding General of the 66th Troop Command, Mississippi Army National Guard; Tom Goffus, MDAA board member, our guest speaker and retired LTG Dave Halverson, our Master of Ceremonies.
We are honored to present to you the 2026 National Capitol Region Missile Defenders of the Year:
Operator
Winners associate with winners to win!
Riki Ellison
Fight On!