Patriot gains: Fort Bliss missile systems stand guard in Bahrain, United Arab Emirates

FORT BLISS -- Patriot missile sites created by soldiers from this post are now guarding the skies of Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates.

More than 500 soldiers with the 5-52nd Air Defense Artillery returned last week from a 12-month deployment to the Persian Gulf countries. They were split between the two countries to establish the Patriot launcher sites, which are designed to shoot down threats ranging from tactical ballistic missiles to enemy aircraft, said Lt. Col. Greg Brady, the unit commander.

The missile defense sites were built as part of an open-ended agreement between the United States and the two countries, Brady said. For the foreseeable future, U.S. air defense soldiers will rotate into those locations just as they do to Korea.

"It does create another demand for deployments," Brady said. "These heads of state definitely all want Patriots."

The Fort Bliss battalion fell under Gen. David Petraeus who runs U.S. Central Command, which is responsible for Southeast Asia. "Our mission was to enhance relations and affirm U.S. commitments for regional security and economic stability," Brady said.

The Patriot presence is also expected to discourage attacks on those nations. During its 12-month deployment, the battalion never fired a missile, Brady said.

Nonetheless, when soldiers in the first batteries arrived, they immediately set up perimeter defenses to defeat ground attacks and activated the Patriot launcher systems. They were arrayed to protect airports, population centers and military headquarters, among other sites.
The deployment provided unique challenges, Brady said.

"This is the first time we've set up an enduring footprint in these countries," Brady said. "These were two sovereign states with two different sets of rules."

That meant his soldiers had to work with local security officials, both police and military, as well as contractors who were building the emplacements. It took cultural and procedural adjustments on both sides, he said.

Most of the construction projects were sealed with handshakes, without much discussion of detail. Brady's soldiers, along with Army Corps of Engineer experts and others, had to monitor progress to ensure that everything was being built to the correct specifications.

It was up to the "junior commanders," Brady said, to deal with the many problems that came up each day while building $1 million launcher sites.

"We were building relationships at all levels," he said. "We had to have frequent 'key' leader engagements."

Just as in Iraq and Afghanistan, commanders found themselves drinking copious quantities of chai, a strong tea, while spending the first two hours of a three-hour meeting getting to know each other, family tree and all. "You have to have a lot of patience to build the trust," Brady said.

For now, the launchers are arranged on packed dirt pads. The concrete will come later, Brady said. Workers also had to build water supplies, lay in electrical cable and refurbish a sewage treatment plant in Bahrain that was on a little-used U.S. Air Force base.

"It's almost like building a small city," Brady said.

The first Patriot team into Bahrain was commanded by Capt. Matt Jamison and 1st Sgt. Gregory Dowdell.

At Jamison's site, the soldiers started from scratch.

"The biggest challenge initially was that there was no relationship with the Bahranians," Jamison said. "At first it made us nervous."

That's because Bahranian soldiers were providing security outside the razor wire that defined the Patriot site's boundaries.

"There were times when there definitely was a friction," Brady said. "We had to learn what the common (tactics, techniques and procedures) were and agree upon them. That way, when something does happen, you know the guy on your left is going to take the shot."

In the United States, training would begin with a reading of the rules of engagement, Jamison said. But that long set of rules would have to be read in English and then translated.

"Something is lost in the translation, but the truth is they just got bored," Jamison said.

So the Fort Bliss air defenders created small groups with soldiers from both countries and used demonstrations rather than lectures. The U.S. soldiers showed their counterparts how they were trained to handle checkpoints, including vehicle and personal searches, and ground attacks, Dowdell said.

As they worked out the language and cultural barriers, the friction vanished.

"They loved it," Jamison said. "They had some brand-new soldiers ... and for them it was free training."

At the same time they were training, the air defenders had to keep the Patriot launchers ready day and night for the entire year.

"Usually we're on an established base and we have a hot and cold cycle," Jamison said. "That allows us to do training and maintenance." Being on the hot cycle all the time "kept us busy."

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Patriot has been an essential element in SWA since day one. I'm glad to see almost 20 years later it is still going strong!!!!!