Photo By Sgt. William Begley | Master Sgt. Vincent Thompson, communications section chief, 3rd CAB checks the early...... read more read more
HUNTER ARMY AIRFIELD, Ga. – During a summer where local rainfall records have fallen, Falcon Soldiers from the 3rd Combat Aviation Brigade took to the muddy, wet field August 4-8 for a command post exercise where signal personnel set up a tactical operations center on Hunter Army Airfield, Ga.
The goal was to be able to provide information to commanders while evaluating the Falcon Brigade’s readiness for an upcoming exercise that will support 4th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division and include 42nd Fires Brigade.
Murfreesboro, Tenn. native, Maj. Jeffrey Wilson, signal officer, 3rd CAB, made sure his troops were in harmony. Wilson has several new Soldiers on his team, and this exercise gives him the opportunity for training.
“We’re putting the TOC together for the first time since we got back from deployment and our equipment came back from reset,” said Wilson. “We basically provide the tactical backbone for all of the mission command systems.”
Master Sgt. Vincent Thompson, senior signal noncommissioned officer, 3rd CAB, was proud of his team’s effort establishing the command post.
“It’s been a great experience for our signal Soldiers getting back to the basics when it comes to communications,” said Thompson, who hails from Moss Point, Miss.
Thompson said he wanted to see how proficient his older and more experienced Soldiers are, while evaluating his newer and younger arrivals to the team.
“A lot of Soldiers in our section are coming straight out of advanced individual training,” continued Thompson. “This is the first opportunity they will get to utilize their military occupational specialty and see the bigger picture, and how important their job is.”
Their job was to put together the TOC from scratch. A total of seven tents, 25 computers and phones, three air conditioners, and enough generators to power all these systems had to be up and functioning in less than a week.
For experienced Soldiers this was another field exercise; the only thing new being the patch of muddy, wet turf where they had to set up. But, that was not the case for some of the younger troops in the communications section. It was a little more than that.
Private Alexandra Sportini, Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 3rd CAB is a radio operator and maintainer who hails from Monroe, Conn. It is also her first time in the field since arriving to her permanent duty station.
“It’s crazy, I love it. I love the rush of running around and trying to get everything up and running,” said Sportini.
When the idea was put to her that this TOC could be her office for months at a time, Sportini got excited.
“I signed up to do this; I didn’t want a regular civilian job. I signed up to defend my country and right now this is as close as I can get to a deployment,” Sportini continued.
According to Wilson, being ready for deployment is exactly what this exercise is designed for.
“We practice now so that we’ll be efficient when the unit’s deployed,” said Wilson.
| Date Taken: | 08.08.2014 |
| Date Posted: | 08.12.2014 09:29 |
| Story ID: | 139067 |
| Location: | SAVANNAH, GA, US |
| Hometown: | MONROE, CT, US |
| Hometown: | MOSS POINT, MS, US |
| Hometown: | MURFREESBORO, TN, US |
| Web Views: | 75 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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