Armuchee graduate takes part in missile defense test
Capt. Justin Webb says recent tension with North Korea hasn’t escalated their training as they “have maintained the same level of proficiency” since he’s been in the Army.
Inspired by his grandfather’s stories of being a military policeman stationed in the United Kingdom while Cold War tensions peaked, when U.S. Army Capt. Justin Webb was a senior at Armuchee High he began to think about joining the military.
As his grandfather told the teenage Webb of transitioning back to civilian life and building a life after service, never losing the friendships he made in the Army, he was drawn to service himself. He didn’t want to reach an age where regret would take hold because he never made the move to serve his country.
July 24 marked nine years since Webb joined the Army as an officer candidate, following his graduation from Shorter College in 2008 with a bachelor’s degree in history and political science.
Six days after his Army anniversary, Webb and members of the 2nd Air Defense Artillery Regiment, a battery he commands, were part of a test of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system in Alaska that successfully intercepted an MRBM — medium-range ballistic missile — over the Pacific Ocean.
Webb’s home base is at Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas, but for the last couple months his unit has been stationed in Kodiak, Alaska, at the Pacific Spaceport Complex, to support test objectives determined by the Missile Defense Agency, which is a piece of the Department of Defense.
The system is not designed to defend Alaska or the mainland U.S. from intercontinental ballistic missiles launched by North Korea, something contrary to popular belief about its position, he said.
“As an example, the batteries in Guam and (South) Korea defend their specific areas against the North Korean ballistic missile threats,” Webb explained.
Rather its capabilities lie in warding off missiles armed with various types of warheads aimed at proximity areas of the THAAD system.
The system also was put to the test on July 11, when an U.S. Air Force C-17 fired off a missile over the Pacific Ocean north of Hawaii, and THAAD detected and tracked it before intercepting it. Webb said the two tests were a proper validation of what the weapons system can do.
Webb’s unit will head back to Texas in a couple weeks. He said air defense artillery is one of five combat branches of the Army.
“We are defensive in nature and provide ground forces freedom of maneuver from a broad range of aerial threats. The branch’s roots began with coastal artillery and the first anti-aircraft artillery,” Webb said. “Over time, protecting ground forces from aircraft evolved to include rocket, artillery, mortar and missile defenses.”
Training hasn’t picked up for Webb’s unit, even as North Korea continues to test its weapons and the U.S. further warns the
rogue nation to draw back. Air defenders in THAAD units “have maintained the same level of proficiency since I’ve been in the Army. You build readiness where you can,” he said.
“That means our units achieve the training standard and can conduct air and missile defense operations anywhere we are required. North Korea’s recent activities may forecast a potential future deployment, but even that’s unpredictable,” said Webb, adding that since 2013, air defense artillery units have had four short notice deployments to Turkey, Guam, Jordan and South Korea.