Shadow over Afghanistan

Photo By Sgt. Blair Neelands | Prior to takeoff, Cpl. Chris Gauthier, a maintenance technician with the Unmanned Arial Vehicle platoon of 10th Mountain Division  

MAIMANEH, AFGHANISTAN

06.27.2010

Story by Spc. Blair Neelands 

1st Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division

MAIMANEH, Afghanistan – With an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle high in the sky, soldiers in the UAV platoon of the 10th Mountain Division’s 1st Brigade Special Troops Battalion, provide a preview of the battlefield to coalition forces in Regional Command-North.

Currently, 17 Iroquois Soldiers are attached to 1st Brigade Combat Team’s 3rd Battalion, 6th Field Artillery in the Faryab province flying missions daily with their RQ-7B Shadow 200 UAV.

“It gives the commander a real time picture of what’s going on in the battlefield when he can’t get out there to see what’s going on,” said Sgt. 1st Class Nicholas Thornthwaite the platoon sergeant.

The UAV also provides help to the Soldiers on the ground.

“It provides battle damage assessment, near real time video, surveillance and reconnaissance for ground units,” said Warrant Officer Michael Pantalone, the Unmanned Aerial Systems Technician. “It saves lives by going out there and providing security for missions such as cordon searches. We have the ability to spot th locations of the enemy and notify the ground units.

After pre-flight inspections the UAV is launched from trailer-mounted pneumatic catapult. Once in the air, the aircraft does the leg work by recording what is “sees”.

“We look at the roads for route recon,” Thornthwaite said. “We look at the pattern of life to see what people do, where they go, where they are living and we look for changes in the pattern.”

Primarily the platoon supports 1st brigade missions, but occasionally find themselves flying for their coalition partners.

“It’s good for us to see how other countries react, how they use their forces, and what’s different from how we operate,” Thornthwaite said. “It’s good to be all one team.”

So far, the platoon has recorded nearly 200 flight hours and will continue to be the “eyes in the sky” for units in northern Afghanistan.

• Date Taken: 06.27.2010
• Date Posted: 06.27.2010 05:09
• Story ID: 52035
• Location: MAIMANEH, AF