No - your father and I never crossed paths. Remember, the missile install was in 2004. However, assuming the commander's home is still the same one, I probably drank brandy in that house.
As for the rest ... believe as you will. I spent my 20 years serving in the military, and 25 years as an engineer/CEO for systems development, so you can be assured I have the utmost respect for my fellow soldiers. Pointing out the limitations of a system, as well as the failure of most to understand the technical intricacies of missile system development hardly qualifies as disrespect.
... you really think it hasn't been improved since 2004? HA!
My father served 36 years in Alaska so you may have crossed paths with him, he recently "retired" and moved out of state (though he "officially" had to [ret] from military to both advise Murkowski [Sr] and run the youth academy. Now he's a volunteer police officer.) We lived in Eagle River, in a home that was custom built for them in uhm '84 I suppose, long before he was even a 2 star.
Anyway, he's after your time apparently. He oversaw upgrades to missile defense up here, and was "in on those" before he even took command of Space Missile Defense, or Fort Rich for that matter:
Part of one of my father's speeches/discussions/updates with the press on the subject (this one was in 2006):
He said Alaska's Army Guard forces would be working with components from other states that will comprise additional aspects of the brigade combat team, including a Guam infantry battalion and an Indiana reconnaissance, surveillance, target and acquisition unit, which is currently deployed to Iraq. "It's not uncommon to have split states in the National Guard in larger units that already exist in other states," he said. "We have it already with one of our units that's split between California and Alaska." He said the transformation is necessary for state Army Guard forces to be ready, relevant and successful. "We were equipped for the Cold War and actually became a legacy force as the rest of the world moved forward in technology," he said. He said the approximate size of the Alaska Army National Guard's forces will remain the same, but will integrate new technology, equipment and units, to include a military police force, which has previously not been utilized in the state.
He said the addition of land to mobile communication systems and satellite-based tracking equipment will create forces more in tune with the rest of the nation's Army forces. "The threat requires that capability today on the battlefield to keep the superior fighting edge and the ability to win America's wars," he said. "Amazingly in our structure, we are very limited in communications available on the modern battlefield today - digitized radios, digitized locator systems." He said it's necessary to incorporate modern fighting equipment to be prepared against enemy forces that are continually working to gain the technological edge. "Multiple countries turn out technology every day that's available on the market," he said. "If you're going to decisively win, you need to have the tactical advantage and that comes through not only the training and the soldiers, but absolutely the equipment and the hardware you give them."
"The Army is so sophisticated and the weapons we use are so sophisticated, you have to be able to read the instructions, comprehend it and you have to have the ability, even in the infantry, to act independently," he said. "There's a lot of mental dexterity involved in being in the armed forces today." He said the state's Army Guard units have slowly begun restructuring to allow them to take the form if not the name of the 207th Infantry Brigade Combat Team one year prior to its September 2008 standup date. Taking on the configuration of the brigade combat team in advance will allow soldiers to become familiar with new equipment and force structure and gain the necessary training prior to coming fully online, he said. All of which he said takes the Alaska Army National Guard up to the next level of service and ability.
"We say kind of in-house, 'Stay the same and become a historical reenactment unit,'" he said. "We would have looked great in our beaver hats and our mukluks, but the rest of the services would have passed us by in terms of their relevance, their resources and the accessibility to be a part of the total Army or the total Guard."
(~chortles~ Even worse, I haz pictures of him in a wet suit and Minnie Mouse ears. On stand-by for later blackmail 
)
...so they upgraded stuff (I guess?) shortly after you left [the state]? I believe it was started in 06 and completed in 09. All I know is that my Father told me straight up not to worry about [Russia at the time] nuking us because he was damn sure they wouldn't be able to hit us. I basically have no emotions (synesthesia), so it wasn't like he was "comforting me" or "trying to calm me down," he was just telling me how it was.
I really have no reason to question him, my father was never one to "lie" about shit, regardless of what trauma it caused; when I spoke to him during my mother's heart attack "episode" (I suppose this was 10-15 years ago now) his first words were: "She's tits up again." (She "died" four times in the hospital.) I mean I'm a "heartless *****" with limited sympathy/empathy, but even I know /that's/ fucked up lol
