94th Army Air and Missile Defense Command (United States)

The 94th Air Defense Artillery Command is an air defense artillery command of the United States Army assigned to United States Army Pacific. Currently they have one patriot missile battalion under their control (1-1 ADA)and one Army/Navy Transportable Radar and Surveillance (AN/TPY-2) system, the 10th Missile Defense Detachment. According to the unit's homepage: "On order, the 94th AAMDC deploys in the PACOM AOR and conducts Joint and Combined Theater Air and Missile Defense in support of designated OPLANS and contingency operations".

The 94th Air Defense Artillery was constituted on 16 December 1940 in the Regular Army as the 94th Coast Artillery. On 17 April 1941 it was activated at Camp Davis, North Carolina. The Regiment was later broken up on 15 May 1943 and its elements reorganized and re-designated as Headquarters and Headquarters Battery, 94th Antiaircraft Artillery Group. During the Second World War, the 94th Coast Artillery participated in major war campaigns within the East Indies, New Guinea, Leyte, and Luzon during which it received commemorate streamers and was additionally decorated with the Philippine Presidential Unit Citation streamer.

After World War II, the Headquarters and Headquarters Battery, 94th Antiaircraft Artillery Group, was inactivated on 15 March 1947 in the Philippine Islands. On 01 April 1960, it was re designated in Kaiserslautern, Germany as Headquarters and Headquarters Battery, 94th Artillery Group, as part of the 32nd Army Air Defense Command. The 94th Air Defense Artillery Group was re-designated on 15 March 1972 as Headquarters and Headquarters Battery, 94th Air Defense Artillery Group. The 94th Air Defense Artillery Group was later re-designated on 16 July 1983 as Headquarters and Headquarters Battery, 94th Air Defense Artillery Brigade.

Missile defense was imporant during the Cold War period, the 94th Artillery Group defended NATO with Nike Hercules, HAWK, PATRIOT, Chaparral and Vulcan Air Defense Systems inspiring the motto of “First Line of Defense.” After the collapse of communism in Europe, the 94th Air Defense Artillery Brigade continued to support European Command contingencies throughout the European Command Area of Operations.

During deployment from September 1991 thru February 1992, Headquarters and Headquarters Battery, 94th Air Defense Artillery Brigade earned the Army Superior Unit Award for its direct support of United States led multinational operation “Determined Resolve” in the Persian Gulf. Before it’s inactivation in 1998, the 94th Air Defense Artillery Brigade formed the nucleus for the first ever Joint Theater Missile Defense Task Force that deployed to Israel in support of Operation Noble Safeguard and Desert Thunder.

The current form of the 94th AAMDC was activated at Fort Shafter on 16 October 2005, and continues to operate from that installation.