Released: 23 Jun 1999
OFFUTT AIR FORCE BASE, Neb. (AFPN) -- Nearly four decades after they played a critical role in the Cuban Missile Crisis, U.S. Strategic Command's intelligence analysts continue to be involved in important world events.
In 1962, the Air Force's 544th Aerospace Reconnaissance Technical Wing inhabited a series of offices in the basement of Strategic Air Command headquarters. The mission of the organization was to provide the SAC commander in chief with up-to-date intelligence about the Soviet nuclear threat.
That fall, the 544th analyzed aerial photographs taken by CIA spy planes, and discovered the Soviet Union was building nuclear missile facilities in Cuba. Armed with that knowledge, President John F. Kennedy embarked on a risky showdown that ended with the Soviets removing their missiles and launchers from Cuba.
By 1992, the 544th had grown from a few hundred personnel to more than a thousand and operated the largest intelligence analysis activity in the Air Force.
When USSTRATCOM was established in 1992, the 544th became the USSTRATCOM Joint Intelligence Center.
Since that time, STRATJIC has continued to play an integral national defense role by providing intelligence not only to the USSTRATCOM commander, but to commanders of operations around the globe.
"Like the 544th during the Cuban Missile Crisis, we have a sense of urgency in the missions we're performing for the theater commanders who are facing the enemy," said Col. Clay A. Stewart, who took the reigns as STRATJIC commander June 3.
Brig. Gen. Glenn C. Waltman, USSTRATCOM's director of intelligence, recognized the parallels between the current mission of STRATJIC and its mission as the 544th, but added that STRATJIC is facing an entirely different, and even more complicated world than the one in 1962.
"In a lot of ways, the world is a scarier place," he said. "We are dealing with a lot of thugs with wide-open wallets who are buying technologies from people who are unfortunately willing to give it to them. The task of the STRATJIC is to find, fix and locate those kinds of threats, and ultimately make sure no one can use weapons of mass destruction to make us do something against our will."
STRATJIC isn't alone in that task. On the same day that Stewart took command, U.S. Space Command decommissioned its 5-year-old Missile Analysis Center. This move freed more than a hundred analysts to transfer to USSTRATCOM and form a Strategic Forces division to augment the STRATJIC. This division, like the center before it, will provide assessments of foreign missile forces and support of strategic and theater planning.
"The MAC has been a centerpiece for foreign nuclear and conventional missile matters within the national intelligence community," explained Navy Capt. Paul S. Lewis, USSPACECOM intelligence director. "Their mission has not ended; it is more critical than ever. The proliferation of missile technology around the world means it is only going to get more complex. But I believe they will have a brilliant future at USSTRATCOM because it will be a reflection of their past."
Waltman praised the capabilities of both the STRATJIC and Strategic Forces Division, envisioning a continuing important role in world events for USSTRATCOM's intelligence analysts.
"We have some great young Americans who are going to continue to supply some essential services to their country," he concluded. "We're going to take advantage of that talent and put it to good use."
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