Photo By Katryn McCalment | Spc. Sean Locke, a computer systems repairer for Company C, Headquarters and...... read more read more
Subscribe
FORT BRAGG, N.C. – It is an unusual Thursday morning when Spc. Sean Locke gets to skip physical training. Traditionally he would be outside in the winter cold, more than likely running from one place to another and back again. But there is a good reason why he’s not running at six in the morning – in addition to being a computer systems repairer, he is also a member of Task Force Bragg’s assault command post, and tonight there’s a mission.
The approximate 60 members of the ACP are a vital element of maintaining XVIII Airborne Corps forced entry capabilities into a hostile foreign country. They work hand in hand with the paratroopers of the 82nd Airborne Division and support the infantry element with communications, medical, intelligence and command capabilities.
So, instead of PT, Locke reports to his company area to test and prepare the radios that are jumping out of airplanes in the rucksacks of paratroopers.
“I’m proud to be a part of the [ACP] because only a select amount of people get to do it,” says Locke, who traditionally works for Company C, Headquarters and Headquarters Battalion, XVIII Airborne Corps. “My company commander came to me personally and asked if I wanted to be a part of it, so I feel privileged to have the opportunity to do this.”
After preparing for the night’s exercise, the normal work also has to be done. Before he can get out of the room where the radios are secured, another soldier asks for Locke’s assistance installing a radio into a vehicle for a weapons qualification range that afternoon.
“That’s just part of my job,” says Locke, who installs a radio into a high mobility multipurpose wheeled vehicle and establishes communications with range control. “I set up the radio last week, so I was asked again because they knew I could do it.”
Locke returns to the radio room and checks on the status of the commo team. After the radios are packed into the individuals rucksacks and weapons are drawn from the armsroom, the members of the ACP are given a couple hours for lunch since the mission is expected to run into the early morning hours. Locke takes the opportunity to run to Burger King for food and take a nap in the radio room.
By 1 p.m. the focus is back on the evening’s mission. At a nearby baseball field, Locke and the rest of the communications team set up their radios in a dugout in an attempt to stay out of the rain that has begun to fall steadily. With antennas sticking out through the chain link, the soldiers expose themselves to the elements as they perform rock drills, or rehearsals of jumping out of the planes and organizing themselves on the drop zone.
All radios are successful in communicating with the Fort Bragg Operations Center, or FBOC, and the paratroopers repack their gear into their rucksacks. They load onto buses for the short ride to Green Ramp where the C-130 Hercules aircraft is staged.
The soldiers wait in the passenger terminal until the sun goes down, but at 6 p.m. the jump is cancelled due to the poor weather. Though the rain has stopped, the cloud cover is too low for the jumpmasters to ensure the drop zone is clear of hazards.
Locke shrugs off the cancellation.
“I honestly don’t mind,” says Locke, laughing. “It’s good training and I understand why we do it, but it hurts when you hit the ground with an additional 70 pounds of gear.”
Instead of completing the exercise with the airborne jump, the group rucks the gear to a nearby field and simulates landing on the DZ.
Using night vision goggles to see in the dark field, the team rallies at a designated point and in small groups heads toward where the patrol base is being set up. Accountability is taken of personnel and equipment and the individual radiomen start working toward establishing communications with the FBOC and the designated secure tactical satellite.
Locke unfolds the small antenna and begins radio checks. Within a few minutes he gives a thumbs-up and calls “comms are up” toward the operations commander; the section he is supporting as a radio telephone operator.
“Commo is our weapon,” says Col. Bruce Parker, operations officer for XVIII Airborne Corps and commander of the exercise. “If we can’t talk, then we aren’t any good.
“Our whole job is to get out here and establish communications, be able to shape conditions for the unit that’s jumping in with joint fires, joint intelligence, so we are feeding them information. If you can’t talk you are just another rifleman on the drop zone, no matter what your rank.”
“[Communication] is important because it’s the only way our higher-ups can communicate and work as one team,” says Locke, who along with five other RTOs are able to establish comms with the FBOC. The two soldiers establishing contact with the tactical satellites aren’t having as much luck.
“The cloud cover is making the signal come in and out. We can’t get a solid lock,” says Spc. Robert Mitzek, the satellite RTO for the command group.
In the dark, someone begins a chorus of sniffles and it makes its way around the circle of kneeling soldiers like the wave.
While the two soldiers continue to try to establish satellite communication, additional soldiers perform medical evacuation and perimeter security training.
Thirty minutes later, Parker calls everyone to the center to discuss the exercises successes and challenges. The group talks about things that can be improved for the next exercise and aspects that were successful.
When notes have been made, the group loads back onto the buses and returns to the company area. The radios and weapons are secured and with a short brief the soldiers are released to go home.
Locke gets home around 11:30 p.m. and his wife, Heather, has left food out for him.
“The hours are just part of being in the Army,” says Locke. “What matters is that the training teaches us something, and there were soldiers out there that had never done this in the dark. It’s always good training, when at the end of it we can say we learned something.”
| Date Taken: | 11.25.2012 |
| Date Posted: | 11.25.2012 23:25 |
| Story ID: | 98317 |
| Location: | FORT BRAGG, NORTH CAROLINA, US |
| Web Views: | 134 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, A day in the life: ‘Commo is our weapon’, by Katryn McCalment, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
No keywords found.
