Photo By Lori Stewart | AN/PPS-5 Ground Surveillance Radar set up in the desert for training exercises... read more read more
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by Lori S. Stewart, USAICoE Command Historian
20 MARCH 1984
On 20 March 1984, the U.S. Army Intelligence Center and School (USAICS) launched Operation GROUNDHOG, a field training exercise for the 17K Ground Surveillance Radar (GSR) Crewman course. Not only did the exercise train the Army’s newest GSR operators, but the course also helped the Border Patrol apprehend nearly 1,500 drug smugglers near Yuma, Arizona, over a four-year period.
In early 1983, Mr. Donald Rogers, chief of USAICS’ Ground Surveillance Division, Department of Surveillance and Systems Maintenance (DSSM), was searching for a way to incorporate a real-world environment into 17K entry-level training. He reached out to the local Border Patrol office with a mutually beneficial training proposal. USAICS would implement a four-day training exercise during which students would use the AN/PPS-5 GSR to detect and track targets across the border prior to their entry onto U.S. soil. Because the Posse Comitatus Act prohibited the military services from conducting any autonomous drug interdiction activities, the information collected by the students would be passed to the Border Patrol for appropriate action.
Military support to counterdrug efforts usually took place during airborne and seaborne surveillance training exercises. Roger’s proposal was one of the first to offer support to ground interdiction efforts along the U.S./Mexico border. The Border Patrol accepted the assistance and recommended the exercise take place in Yuma, approximately 300 miles northwest of Fort Huachuca. In July 1983, the Vice President’s drug interdiction committee received a briefing on the training initiative, now known as Operation GROUNDHOG. With the committee’s enthusiastic backing and intense scrutiny, the program moved forward rapidly.
A flurry of activity over the next several months fleshed out the details and requirements. DSSM had to receive approvals from the secretary of the Army to conduct off-post training, the Marine Corps Air Station (MCAS) at Yuma to use their facilities to billet the trainees, and the U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command to increase the 17K course by an additional week to accommodate the exercise. Interservice Support Agreements were drafted, reviewed, redrafted, and finally signed. DSSM negotiated a long-term lease agreement for four-wheel-drive vehicles and received approval to use federal land for the training. Throughout this dizzying preparation period, Rogers regularly submitted updates to various congressional committees.
After a successful dry run on 20-24 February 1984, Rogers’ division was ready to conduct its first training iteration. On 20 March, the seventeen students in Class 17K10-13 traveled to Yuma for their end-of-course comprehensive test. During the four-day tactical exercise, the majority of which took place at night, students emplaced the GSR and sensor equipment and then looked for evidence of intrusion. Using direct communications links to law enforcement, the students passed on real-time information on suspected locations for appropriate action. During the first exercise, the students detected 147 targets, and Border Patrol agents apprehended twenty suspects.
While some minor glitches marred the initial training, students praised the realistic exercise. Rogers called the overall concept “excellent” and believed it “will doubtless produce a better 17K.” Operation GROUNDHOG was run nearly once a month thereafter, requiring the assignment of a full-time training technician at the Yuma MCAS. By May, with the Army’s future plan to combine the 17K and 17M remote sensor specialist into a single 96R military occupational specialty, Rogers anticipated including 17M students in the exercise as well. GROUNDHOG received nation-wide attention and such positive feedback that several active and reserve units sent their GSR personnel to train in Yuma.
USAICS terminated Operation GROUNDHOG in November 1988 after training more than 900 students and detecting nearly 3,000 illegal border crossers, 1,476 of whom were apprehended by Border Patrol agents.
| Date Taken: | 03.23.2023 |
| Date Posted: | 03.23.2023 15:29 |
| Story ID: | 441055 |
| Location: | FORT HUACHUCA, ARIZONA, US |
| Web Views: | 231 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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