Photo By Master Sgt. Brad Staggs | Pvt. Vincent Lewis, 21, a member of the National Guard Patriot Academy from Glen...... read more read more
BUTLERVILLE, Ind. — Pvt. Vincent Lewis, a 21-year-old student at the Patriot Academy from Glen Burnie Park, Md., takes a deep breath and starts reading the news out loud. Halfway through, he stumbles over the name “Al-Awlawki” and stops, staring at the name as if it will change in front of his eyes. After a few more tries, he gets it right and moves on to other stories.
Lewis is practicing for the upcoming debut of Radio Muscatatuck, an internet radio station to be found at www.radiomutc.com which will broadcast news, sports, weather, music, and training from Muscatatuck Urban Training Complex.
“I have been listening to the radio my whole life,” said Lewis, who graduates from the Patriot Academy Nov. 4. “When I was given the chance to work in an actual station, I jumped at it.”
Radio Muscatatuck was created to enhance the role of MUTC, according to Facility Commander Lt. Col. Dale Lyles.
“Muscatatuck can represent a city anywhere in the world,” Lyles explained. “We must be able to give the look and feel of a city environment that has been struck by a calamity, manmade or natural.”
Part of that overall feel is the information environment that exists in any city around the world. The first step in creating that information environment is to create a living, breathing radio station and media outlet.
The purpose of the radio station is three-fold: to assist in training personnel how to talk to the media in the United States and overseas; to keep the local public informed of what is happening at MUTC; and to entertain and educate the listeners. To that end, the station will operate just like any radio station someone would hear over the open airwaves, with one exception.
“When there is a training event that will be broadcast over Radio Muscatatuck, the public will hear a warning,” said MUTC Executive Officer Steve Satterlee. “This will let the public know that what they are hearing is only an exercise and not to be taken as an actual event.”
Satterlee went on to explain that if the exercise is a long one which will take up most of the broadcast day, an exercise message will be played every five minutes.
“It’s an opportunity to train on real-world equipment in a realistic environment that is hard to find anyplace else,” Lyles said. “When people train at Muscatatuck, whether they are military, civilian, emergency responders, or troops going overseas, they expect realism and the radio station is one more way we give it to them.”
While the station is designed to assist trainees in realizing that the media is an actual environment which they must engage positively during their training, the training doesn’t stop there. Students from the National Guard’s Patriot Academy, located on the Muscatatuck facility, as well as students from Indiana University will be working and training at the radio station.
The commandant of the Patriot Academy, Lt. Col. William Freeman, looks at the radio station as an opportunity for his students.
“I am thrilled to be able to offer this to the students who excel,” Freeman said while watching Lewis work in the broadcast room. “This will give these students yet another job skill to take back home with them after they graduate and, maybe, start a whole new civilian career path for them.”
Lewis agrees. Coming to the Patriot Academy, he was a high-school drop-out who wanted to join the National Guard. He will receive his Indiana high school diploma Nov. 4 and have several college credit hours under his belt before heading to his next phase of military service. Radio Muscatatuck has given him a new career choice when he gets back to Maryland.
“This has been the experience of a lifetime,” Lewis said with a smile. “I want to work at a radio station when I get home because of the training I got here. I would recommend it to anybody.”
| Date Taken: | 10.06.2011 |
| Date Posted: | 10.07.2011 11:49 |
| Story ID: | 78171 |
| Location: | BUTLERVILLE, IN, US |
| Web Views: | 87 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
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