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CAMP MIKE SPANN, Afghanistan – Soldiers of the signal intelligence platoon from Bravo Company, 1st Brigade Special Troops Battalion, located at Camp Mike Spann in Northern Afghanistan play a major role in supporting units within the brigade by providing timely information about events occurring within the region, as well as giving early warnings to the possibility of an attack on Coalition Forces.
A majority of the work done by these 10th Mountain Division Soldiers is processing hundreds of reports every day and summarizing them into presentations which are distributed to the battalions. This increases situational awareness and helps with assessing the overall security in their area of operations.
“Working within the walls of Camp Spann implies a significant amount of effort to be put into reading reports and being a PowerPoint wizard sometimes!” said Sgt. Chelsie Sargent, a shift lead and senior analyst. “Though there are times that it seems the day will never end, and the ‘to do’ list will never get done, it all seems so small in comparison to the amount of time and energy that all of the soldiers beyond the walls of Camp Spann have to put into improving the lives of all the Afghan people.”
Sargent, along with the rest of the platoon, have faced many challenges during this deployment, but have been able to rely on the training they received at Fort Drum.
Since the platoon is spread throughout the northern part of the country, providing small groups to Low Level Voice Intercept teams as well as other remote locations has worked to the platoon’s benefit.
“Supporting two LLVI teams, as well as our overall brigade mission, has spread our platoon out all over the area of operations causing us to split up our personnel with deployment experience among the three groups, but that just meant that us newer Soldiers learned a lot faster and worked harder to accomplish our mission,” commented Sgt. Juliane Lazarr.
During this deployment, the SIGINT platoon has also been augmented analysts by CST-25. The four man team has greatly aided in the mission and helped to provide more advanced and updated program training for the platoon.
“I only recently have taken over the platoon and have been very impressed with the work that they do,” said 1st Lt. Stephanie Wood. “They have greatly increased the brigade’s knowledge of the significant groups and personalities in RC-North and have helped maintain security for our forces here.”
Some of the SIGINT platoon Soldiers also help the brigade in other ways not related to their normal everyday work activities. For example, Specialist Melody Randolph took the initiative to learn how to speak Dari. She has enhanced the mission by performing her duties as a Persian-Farsi linguist.
Randolph uses her language skills to help out at the entry control points by talking with the Afghan forces and Afghan contractors who do business with the base.
“It’s great getting out and talking to the local nationals,” Randolph said. “You learn a lot about their culture and customs and it helps in understanding the similarities and differences between our two countries. I really enjoy having the opportunity to get to interact with the local populace and get to know them better.”
Although these far-flung units and the LLVI teams that support them have less comforts and amenities than those provided at Camp Mike Spann, the SIGINT platoon Soldiers pursue their mission effectively.
“I always know that when I am frustrated and feel like quitting, there is someone out there a lot more tired that doesn’t have that option,” Sargent said. “Those soldiers can’t just tell the Afghan Forces that they are partnered with that they don’t feel like working that day. They have to see the example for the Afghans to follow. That realization always keeps me in check and makes me realize that my bad days really aren’t so bad.”
| Date Taken: | 09.30.2010 |
| Date Posted: | 09.30.2010 08:48 |
| Story ID: | 57235 |
| Location: | CAMP SPANN, AF |
| Web Views: | 441 |
| Downloads: | 10 |
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