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Combat communications Airmen bridge Iraq transition gap

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Mike Meares
  • 321st Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs
SATHER AIR BASE, Iraq --  Combat communication Airmen rarely deploy to a location with air conditioned living quarters, running water and a fully operational communications network -- this is not a normal deployment.

A 35-man team of communications Airmen, deployed from the 5th Combat Communications Group, at Robins Air Force Base, Ga., are here supporting the transition of U.S. military led missions to the new Office of Security Cooperation-Iraq. It is their responsibility to deliver combatant commanders the capability to communicate with air, ground and sea forces to prosecute a military war. However, in this situation they are operating in reverse order, and setting up the same equipment communications Airmen delivered more than eight years ago.

"This is an interesting mission for my team to support," said Chief Master Sgt. Charley Toole, 53rd Combat Communications Squadron superintendent. "Normally, we are the first team on the ground with very limited resources and executing our mission in an entirely different way. We're just excited to be here to support such an important historical mission."

The team has set up a robust tactical communications network using the ground multiband terminal, or GMT, to bridge the transition from the U.S. military's network to the Department of State's network.

"We are going to make sure there is a communications bridge for a successful transfer of authority in Iraq, and we came prepared with the right equipment to ensure that happens," said Capt. David Cox, 5th CCG site communications engineer.

The team deployed here with a fly away kit, a deployable satellite dish that provides classified and unclassified computer access and secure voice, to ensure Airmen can continue to conduct their mission during the transition. The team normally assembles the kit first, then assembles a GMT. Instead the team has put the GMT together first to provide tactical communications as established connections are turned off.

"We will continue to shrink (in capability) until the transition from GMT to the fly away kit," Toole said. "From A to B, or B to A, we are going to accomplish the mission."

Combat communicators are normally one of the first teams to enter an area of operations to lay down initial tactical communications capabilities. They typically operate autonomously, setting up their own amenities in austere locations. During this mission the team has the amenities provided by a base that's had nearly a decade to develop its infrastructure, including some morale activities and hard covered trailers.

"When you go into an area and there is nothing, then you're the most popular guys on the camp," Cox said. "However, in this case we have the challenge of transitioning to a tactical environment with less capability. Either way we have a job to do ... it is a very historic moment, and we're proud to be a part of it."

As Operation New Dawn nears its scheduled Dec. 31 end date, and U.S. forces in Iraq continue to transition out of the country, the U.S. and Iraqi partnership established over the past eight years will continue to endure.