The National Security Roundtable

ABOUT THE SPEAKER
After a military career spanning 35 years, Lt. General Henry A. "Trey" Obering, one of the foremost experts and leading voices on missile defense, retired in 2009 as Director of the Missile Defense Agency. The MDA is a presidentially-chartered agency that is mandated by Congress to acquire and deploy, when directed, highly effective ballistic missile defense systems to protect the United States as well as forward-deployed and expeditionary elements of the U.S. armed forces and allies.

Gen. Obering entered the Air Force in 1973 after completing the University of Notre Dame's ROTC program as a distinguished graduate. He received his pilot wings in 1975, received the Top Gun, Air-to-Air award during his F-4E training and flew operational assignments in the F 4E. Later assigned to the Space Shuttle program, he participated in 15 space shuttle launches as a NASA orbiter project engineer, and was responsible for integrating firing room launch operations. Other assignments included tours with the Air Force Inspector General, the Defense Mapping Agency and Electronic Systems Center. Prior to his assignment at MDA, Gen. Obering planned and programmed 68 joint, Air Force and international programs, with a $28 billion budget as Mission Area Director for Information Dominance on the Air Staff. Gen. Obering received his undergraduate degree in aerospace engineering (cum laude) from University of Notre Dame and his Master of Science in astronautical engineering from Stanford University. He is a distinguished graduate from both the Squadron Officer School and the Air Command and Staff College at Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama as well as a distinguished graduate of the Industrial College of the Armed Forces at Ft. McNair, Washington, D.C.  Currently, Gen. Obering is Senior Vice President at Booz Allen Hamilton, a leading strategy and technology consulting firm.

ABOUT THE DOCUMENTARY
Many years after 9/11, Americans still remain vulnerable to missile attack. We do not have the defenses in place to protect our cities, our states, or our people. A gripping new documentary produced by The Heritage Foundation, 33 Minutes: Protecting America in the New Missile Age, exposes the life-threatening myths about defending America from missile attack. Screened to a select audience of Washington, DC insiders, the documentary takes its title, 33 Minutes, from the time it would take an ICBM (Intercontinental Ballistic Missile) to reach the United States if launched from North Korea or Iran.