Fort Sill officer promoted to Colonel

After more than 21 years serving the Army, Lt. Col. Moseph Sauda, Joint C-University (JCU) was promoted to Colonel at 1:30 p.m.Tuesday at the Air Defense Artillery Training Support Facility at Fort Sill.

“It’s surreal,” Sauda said. “It takes a long time to get here and there’s a lot of people to help you get here. It’s awesome.”

Born in Michigan, Sauda moved all over the country with his mom before joining the Army. His journey started one day after the infamous Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, when he was a college senior.

“I actually went to the recruiter’s office Sept. 12, 2001,” Sauda said. “I didn’t know anything about the Army. I didn’t realize my grandfather served. All I knew was I wanted to get in now. I was already a senior in college, so I had to figure out what avenues were available for me to serve. I didn’t want to essentially throw away the fact that I was already about to graduate, so i extended an additional year and did what’s called an Accelerated Cadet Program, which allowed me to commission in two years. I ended up doing two senior years in order to commission.”

Sauda’s current role is to defeat small unmanned aircraft.

“We deal with organization, training and equipping of the force so that we can more adequately defeat the small unmanned aircraft,” Sauda said.

One of Sauda’s plans for his new role is to give back.

“My number one job at this point is to wield the worthy responsibilities and authorities of this office to ensure that the personnel that I’m charged with taking care of are getting the care they deserve,” Sauda said.

Sauda has many memorable moments being in the Army.

“Getting through Ranger School as a lieutenant was definitely one of them,” Sauda said. “Coming home from deployments where I had to personally do escort duties for dignified transfer remains. I’ve done and officiated funerals, for instance, and it makes an impression on you. You start to understand what we do and those who come before you.

Sauda has been stationed all over the country, including Texas, Maryland, Washington, North Carolina and Florida. Most of his family have also served in the armed forces.

“It’s been a very fun ride, I’ve worked with a lot of great people,” Sauda said. Serving the United States Army is a blessing in itself and the ability to lead others as well as be led by people that you trust, there’s nothing like it.”