Photo By Sgt. Juanita Philip | Spc. Brooke Ramsden, an information technology specialist, Joint Force Headquarters,...... read more read more
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Vigilant Guard 17-03 kicked off on Monday, May 15, but one Virgin Islands National Guard section was hard at work for quite a while.
Members of the J6 Information Management Branch along with the signal support specialists from other VING units and off-island support had already started the mission by laying down the foundation for the Joint Incident Site Communications Capability.
“We had teams from Puerto Rico and Pennsylvania Air National Guard [271st Combat Communications Squadron] who were here to support the mission in terms of all computer communication-data, and telecom or telephone capabilities,” said Chief Warrant Officer 3 Tremelle Gerard, internet management branch chief on the adjutant general’s staff for the exercise.
Both teams along with the VING members totaled 16 personnel between the islands.
“If we go black, the intent was to have telephones working, wired or wireless and computers likewise, wired or wireless.”
When the JISCC was up, the set up provided connectivity to all computers and phones in the Joint Operations Center.
“We had communication capabilities whether by DAART [Domestic Operations (DOMOPS) Awareness and Assessment Response Tool] or whatever type of internet application we choose,” he added.
“The communication that was offered was intra-island; however, we could communicate inter-island between the JISCCs,” Gerard said.
While Puerto Rico’s team remained on St. Croix, the 271st CBCS traveled to St. Thomas, where they supported the main VG 17-03 contingent with JISCC operations.
“We were tasked with providing connectivity to the joint operations center, here in St. Thomas,” said Sgt. 1st Class Ofari Benjamin, communications lead for Vigilant Guard 17-03.
Benjamin’s team traveled to St. Thomas days before the mission to setup the internet.
“During this mission, we had support from the JISCC team from Pennsylvania.” “In turn, we were able to support more than 60 laptops and phones in the St. Thomas JOC alone.”
“In St. Croix we supported the Joint Force Headquarters State Command and Control operations and the 104th Troop Command, Command and Control,” he stated.
The team had been conducting training for more than a year to get them to this point.
In June 2016, the communications team conducted inter-island checks. They were able to communicate via the JISCC on St. Thomas and the JISCC on St. Croix with a video teleconference bridge and the ACU-1000 Communications Package, an integrator system that could add different radio systems or allow different systems to communicate on one level.
The team, along with visiting Air Guard personnel conducted a myriad of trainings to include JISCC operations, communications operations and Cyber Net defense, Benjamin said.
“Last year’s training was a start to getting prepared for the mission, however, there were some setbacks in not getting some additional training with the other entities like VITEMA and the VING battalions- 786th CSSB and 104th Troop Command
| Date Taken: | 05.17.2017 |
| Date Posted: | 05.18.2017 14:03 |
| Story ID: | 234318 |
| Location: | ST. THOMAS, US |
| Web Views: | 94 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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