WEBVTT 00:08.710 --> 00:10.877 I'm Staff Sergeant Stuart Dawkin . I'm 00:10.877 --> 00:13.630 a weapons director , a part of the 461 00:13.630 --> 00:15.963 Air Control Wing Wing Staff Directorate . 00:17.389 --> 00:19.278 My role in JStars was an AOT , so 00:19.278 --> 00:21.445 airborne operations technicians . So I 00:21.445 --> 00:23.500 was beating hard and JStars . That's 00:23.500 --> 00:25.611 where everything starts . That's part 00:25.611 --> 00:27.722 of the beginning of the ISR mission . 00:27.722 --> 00:27.549 So I'm the one using that sensor at the 00:27.549 --> 00:29.670 bottom of the JStars to actually find 00:29.670 --> 00:31.781 different things on the ground . So I 00:31.781 --> 00:33.781 can find a convoy , find a tank . A 00:33.781 --> 00:35.948 boat , etc . etc . So once I find that 00:35.948 --> 00:38.170 information , I'm making sure that gets 00:38.170 --> 00:40.226 passed off board to a fighter jet to 00:40.226 --> 00:39.955 another Intel asset to collect 00:39.955 --> 00:42.011 information on it . Adversary forces 00:42.011 --> 00:44.177 will fly in different formations . I'm 00:44.177 --> 00:46.344 going to call out that the size of the 00:46.344 --> 00:48.566 formation , uh , what it actually looks 00:48.566 --> 00:50.755 like trek north hostile . So I'm going 00:50.755 --> 00:52.811 to give them an idea of what they're 00:52.811 --> 00:54.977 going up against . I'm gonna give them 00:54.977 --> 00:57.199 threats . I'm going to give them , um . 00:57.199 --> 00:59.311 Sam , so surface to air missiles , if 00:59.311 --> 01:01.422 those pop up or those on the ground , 01:01.422 --> 01:01.099 going to get passing those , passing 01:01.099 --> 01:03.155 targets , passing time changes , any 01:03.155 --> 01:05.321 information critical to accomplish the 01:05.321 --> 01:07.210 mission . It was the group 45,000 01:07.210 --> 01:09.377 hostile . I was able to see how JStars 01:09.377 --> 01:12.339 plays a larger role in that forming 01:12.339 --> 01:14.561 that common operational pictures for C2 01:14.561 --> 01:16.783 decision makers at a high level to make 01:16.783 --> 01:19.006 decisions about the battle space . So , 01:19.006 --> 01:21.117 uh , it's definitely rewarding when I 01:21.117 --> 01:23.228 went out to South Carolina , deployed 01:23.228 --> 01:25.450 out to Shaw , sports Centcom operations 01:25.450 --> 01:27.283 out there . It was , uh , really 01:27.283 --> 01:27.169 rewarding . One day I did a mission and 01:27.169 --> 01:29.391 went home , went to the gym , and I saw 01:29.391 --> 01:31.447 exactly what I was doing on the news 01:31.447 --> 01:33.669 and I was like . I did that I was I was 01:33.669 --> 01:35.725 on treadmill watching it what I just 01:35.725 --> 01:37.836 did , which was incredible . Once the 01:37.836 --> 01:40.169 decision was made to divest the J stars , 01:40.169 --> 01:42.391 uh , it was full steamhead . We initial 01:42.391 --> 01:44.502 timeline to divest J Stars was around 01:44.502 --> 01:46.669 2-3 years , but they got , uh , shrunk 01:46.669 --> 01:48.780 to about 1 year . A lot of challenges 01:48.780 --> 01:50.947 came up . There's a lot of differences 01:50.947 --> 01:53.002 between a flying platform and ground 01:53.002 --> 01:55.225 base C-2 , which is what we have now at 01:55.225 --> 01:57.113 Robbins , uh , how we control our 01:57.113 --> 01:59.169 mission set , what we can do is just 01:59.169 --> 01:58.370 completely different , and it just 01:58.370 --> 02:00.537 showed me that change is a constant in 02:00.537 --> 02:02.870 the Air Force as well as in life . Also , 02:02.870 --> 02:04.910 JStars has a rich history , um , 02:05.169 --> 02:06.947 supporting operations in Iraq , 02:06.947 --> 02:09.809 Afghanistan , uh , Libya , all sorts of 02:09.809 --> 02:11.976 places like that . And I remember when 02:11.976 --> 02:13.976 I first got here just hearing those 02:13.976 --> 02:16.142 stories , I was on inspire just like , 02:16.142 --> 02:15.729 you did what you did what ? I mean , 02:15.770 --> 02:18.610 it's um . This makes me feel proud that 02:18.610 --> 02:21.529 I'm part of a weapons platform that did 02:21.529 --> 02:23.529 so much . It's a critical lesson to 02:23.529 --> 02:25.696 learn from the past . One day a flying 02:25.696 --> 02:27.918 C2 and ISR may come back in a different 02:27.918 --> 02:30.140 way , so it'll be important for lessons 02:30.140 --> 02:32.307 to be taken from that . I think , uh , 02:32.307 --> 02:34.473 it's important to highlight JStar just 02:34.473 --> 02:36.418 due to the , the legacy of all the 02:36.418 --> 02:36.309 people that had supported , and it was 02:36.309 --> 02:38.531 a critical role and played an important 02:38.531 --> 02:39.449 impact on the local community .