Crookston’s Cody Brekken is the commander of the North Dakota National Guard’s Charlie Battery out of Fargo, N.D. On July 27, Brekken and the members of Charlie Battery were presented with the 2019 Alexander Hamilton Award presented annually by the U.S. Army Air Defense Artillery branch to the battery that demonstrated exceptional achievement and mission accomplishment throughout the year.
Brekken and his battery were excited to receive the prestigious award. “The Alexander Hamilton Award gets handed out to who they deem was the best Air Defense Artillery Battery in the country in the National Guard,” said Brekken. “It was a pretty bigger honor to get that with Charlie Battery out of Fargo and I was the Commander. That award is deemed for exceptional achievement, superior mission accomplishment, and overall unit excellence. So, we don’t take that honor lightly and we were excited to receive it.”
The award was presented by Colonel David Shank, U.S. Army Air Defense Artillery School Acting Commandant at Fort Sill in Oklahoma. The battery’s 2019 accomplishments included high retention, skills qualification, and physical fitness test rates along with a successful training evaluation at the National Training Center at Fort Irwin in California. Brekken said the battery performed well there and got noticed. “2019 for us included a big train up and then we went to the National Training Center (NTC) in Fort Irwin, CA,” said Brekken. “And performed very well down there and got noticed for sure. And we got this recognition for it. I was Commander for two years and this last week that I was gone was my last time in command of Charlie Battery.”
Although his time as the commander of Charlie Battery has ended, Brekken will remain in the guard. Brekken said he’ll be a part of the North Dakota National Guard’s year-long deployment to Washington, D.C. in the summer of 2021. “I’m still in the National Guard, still a Captain, but no longer in the Commander spot at the battery level,” said Brekken. “I’ll be in our deployment package for our mobilization package we do every four years in Washington, D.C., which I was gone for in 2016. I’ll be an Air Defense Artillery Fire Control Officer. A DAFCO is what we call it in the Army for short and the Army loves its acronyms. That’s what I’ll be for the next two years now.”
Brekken said Charlie Battery has outstanding soldiers and he is very proud of them. “That Fargo unit is outstanding soldiers,” said Brekken. “They’re just nothing but professionals and worker bees, so they made my job easy for the most part. I’m really proud of those guys and gals in the unit and the hard work they’ve put in. We have a very high operational tempo in the unit and I really take my hat off to the soldiers that are expected to mobilize with us every four years and do these training centers in California. You wouldn’t tell by looking at them, but they take it all in stride and I’m proud of them.”
The award is named in honor of Alexander Hamilton who served as an artillery officer and aide de camp to General George Washington during the Revolutionary War. And was appointed the first Secretary of the Treasury in the newly founded United States of America.
Photos courtesy of the North Dakota National Guard’s Public Affairs Office/Sgt. 1st Class Charles Highland
