Photo By Joint Force Headquarters Califonia National Guard | Twenty-two airmen and 56,000 pounds of equipment make their way from San Diego, home...... read more read more
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Simulating a real-world mission is one of the best ways a military unit can prepare for one. Unfortunately, when your mission is to move 56,000 pounds of equipment to a foreign country and establish multiple communication platforms with no prior infrastructure, simulation can be hard.
Chief Master Sgt. Donna Goodno has served in the California Air National Guard's 147th Combat Communications Squadron (CBCS), 195th Wing, since 1992, and the 147th CBCS has practiced setting up an entire communications system at least twice each year as part of their internal training, usually in about 3 1/2 hours. But before this summer's participation in exercise Saber Strike in Latvia, she had never seen the 147th CBCS move 28 tons of equipment overseas to serve an external customer.
"Normally when we deploy overseas, the equipment is already there, and we run what's there," said Goodno, who has worked full-time at the 147th since 2001. "When you work here that long, it's like, 'I wonder what it would be like to take our equipment with us and deploy somewhere and actually do our job on our own equipment.'"
The team deployed with their equipment June 6 through July 1 in support of Saber Strike, a 13-nation, 10,000-member NATO exercise in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania designed to improve interoperability in support of multinational contingency operations. Specifically the 147th supported the Michigan Air National Guard's 127th Wing and its A-10 Thunderbolt II attack aircraft.
"We flew into Lielvarde Air Base and had a big grassy area, a big field, where we set up our tents, generators, computers and other equipment," Goodno said. "[A CBCS] is self-sustaining, including bringing [meals, ready to eat], water and everything else so we can self-sustain for 72 hours, then find what we need."
After years of wondering how the 147th would perform in the task for which it was created, Goodno saw the team's years of practice pay off. The CBCS sent 22 airmen to Latvia, including many who were fresh from Technical School, and the team completed every facet of their mission successfully.
In addition to setting up a satellite communications terminal and full network suite, the 147th provided radio communications so Thunderbolt pilots could communicate with their unit on the ground, with a range of 55 miles.
Staff Sergeant Alex Bivin said serving a real-world customer, the 127th Wing, brought beneficial challenges for the 147th's communications experts.
"Your customers are needy. They want certain things, and you have to accommodate them," he said. "The nature of combat communications is to think innovatively to fix their problems and the shortfalls they have."
Thinking innovatively was part of the mission for the 127th as well, as the wing practiced takeoffs and landings on the Jagala Highway east of Tallinn, Estonia, on June 20.
"We practice landing in austere locations," said Brig. Gen. John D. Slocum, commander of the 127th Wing. "It gives us the ability to disperse from main airfields. It gives us the ability to work closer with the ground troops and support infrastructure that we have available in different countries."
Bivin said that even though it was miles away - in a different country even - he enjoyed supporting the rare highway mission.
"It was awesome that A-10s from our base, that we were supporting, landed on that road," he said. "We were a part of history that day."
| Date Taken: | 08.15.2016 |
| Date Posted: | 08.15.2016 16:46 |
| Story ID: | 207169 |
| Location: | SAN DIEGO, CA, US |
| Web Views: | 582 |
| Downloads: | 3 |
This work, No infrastructure? No problem: 147th CBCS brings communications capabilities anywhere, by Brandon Honig, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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