Courtesy Photo | Soldiers of 1st Battalion, 44th Air Defense Artillery Regiment, 69th ADA Brigade,...... read more read more
FORT HOOD, Texas – Several elements from 69th Air Defense Artillery Brigade provided the air defense presence during Bold Quest 15.2, a joint live-fire exercise held on Fort Bliss, Texas, Sept. 8-Oct. 8.
Two batteries and a Tactical Command Post (TAC) from 1st Battalion, 44th Air Defense Artillery Regiment, as well as a TAC from 69th ADA, helped test the Mode 5 capabilities of the Navy element’s Identification Friend or Foe (IFF) system.
According to Tel Instrument Electronics Corps’ Web site: “The system measures the distance and heading to the aircraft, and the transponder encodes identification and position information into the response.”
Capt. Aaron Helm, the fire direction center officer in charge for 1st Bn., 44th ADA Regt., participated in the exercise.
“We’re confirming that when we sent out our interrogations from our Patriot radar, that we could see that it was, in fact, friendly,” he explained.
He also oversaw the setup of the batteries on the training areas used for the exercise.
“For us, it was kind of a test of our capabilities to rapidly deploy a minimum engagement package, and set it up and bring it into the fight,” he explained. “Just being able to do that with little guidance from above and actually integrate ourselves into the joint community was a really eye-opening experience.”
While Helm and the Soldiers of the batteries assisted in the tactical part of the exercise, his wife, Capt. Robie Helm, the battalion’s logistical officer in charge, had a different job.
“As the logistics officer I made sure that everyone had food, a place to stay and transportation from the barracks to [exercise] site,” she explained. “I made sure all the batteries had everything they needed to accomplish their task and mission.”
Though she did not play a tactical role, Robie gained a wider scope of her duties from the exercise.
“For me, the biggest thing was learning how to work with external agencies and really rely on them to provide logistical support,” she said.
Aaron said he learned the importance of joint and combined operations.
“You never know where the next conflict will be and what kind of environment you’ll be operating in, so it’s important that you actually build relationships with the other communities so that they understand your capabilities and you understand their capabilities,” he said. “It makes things work better in the end.”
| Date Taken: | 10.08.2015 |
| Date Posted: | 11.02.2015 16:35 |
| Story ID: | 180665 |
| Location: | FORT BLISS, TEXAS, US |
| Web Views: | 223 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, 1-44 ADA Soldiers augment Fort Bliss exercise, by Kimberly Hackbarth, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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