No Fail Leadership

Along the Colorado Rockies, a mountain range that spans North America, upon the foothills of Cheyenne Mountain and Pikes Peak, we honored North America’s best Missile Warning and Defenders of this past year in their vital roles of leadership for the safety of the North American Continent under the commands of the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), U.S. Northern Command (NORTHCOM), and Strategic Command (STRATCOM). Based out of Peterson Air Force Base (AFB) in Colorado Springs and Buckley AFB, Colorado, these Airmen, Soldiers, and Civilians whom span both Canadian and American services provide the space tracking and identification of ballistic missile threats for NORAD and STRATCOM, and the firing solutions for NORTHCOM, the operational command authority for this “No Fail” mission. It is a critical collection of team cross COCOM capability and leadership that has provided stability and peace to the population of North American over the past year from the North Korean nuclear ballistic missile threat. The excellence exemplified and recognized last Friday night is enabling the upcoming June 12 talks of peace and denuclearization between President Donald Trump and Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un and whatever the outcomes and ramifications from these talks will be to North America.

This marks the sixth annual NORAD & USNORTHCOM Missile Warning and Defender of the Year award ceremony and the first time Airmen from the 460^th Operations Group, out of Buckley AFB who fall under STRATCOM, have been recognized at this event. The NORAD & USNORTHCOM Missile Warning and Defender of the Year was established around NORAD’s anniversary on May 12 and President Ronald Reagan’s 1979 visit to Cheyenne Mountain, where he learned the U.S. had no defenses against Russian nuclear ballistic missiles.

We bring forward the recognized North American leaders of excellence in a “No Fail” mission for the populations of North America.