Photo By 1st Lt. CHIPPETTA DANIELS | (From left to right: Spc. Jamal Edmonds, 1st Lt. Chippetta Daniels, Staff Sgt. James...... read more read more
Can we accomplish more with less? Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges, commanding general of United States Army Europe, exhorted the soldiers of USAREUR, saying, “Our task is to make 30,000 look and feel like 300,000”. A detachment of the 151st Expeditionary Signal Battalion (ESB) has been doing just that this summer as part of Resolute Castle 2017, a NATO effort to build infrastructure at the Joint National Training Center, Cincu, Romania.
They are working alongside the Romanian Land Forces and the U.K. Royal Monmouthshire Royal Engineers in directly providing data and voice communications to more than six Engineer Battalions with three network/communication resources.
Over the past several months, the Signal team has provided data and voice communications through the rain, ice, cold weather, wind, and snow to maintain their 99% Network uptime service level agreement. The mission has required them to support over 1200 soldiers with communication and help desk support.
They have kept their network operational while providing outstanding customer service with limited resources. Staff Sgt. Jerad Kidd, of McKinney, TX said, “When we got here, the Joint Operation Center (JOC) was empty with not even a phone or laptop in sight, and now we are supporting six different units every three weeks, to include the Battalion staff with communication 24 hours a day 7 days a week”.
This was all accomplished with three resources and innovation by establishing network redundancy. The redundancy gives them backup network coverage to minimize network outages and reduces the need to have resources working around the clock.
The 151st ESB soldiers have sustained lines of communication throughout the theater of operation and to the continental United States, allowing soldiers to communicate with their home units and family. They accomplished this by installing Wi-Fi in each barracks room and setting up an MWR Google Voice laptop for making free phone calls home.
These actions have greatly increased Task Force Castle’s operational success and morale.
The 151st ESB has participated in several signal projects and initiatives, to include the setup of the GCSS Army application to support the maintenance team and the MC4 computer to allow the medical staff to order needed medical supplies.
Spc. Jamal Edmonds of Columbia, SC, said, “Whether it is communication equipment we work with every day or systems we are less familiar with, the 151st ESB loves a challenge….so we met it head on to meet our customers’ needs”. These efforts under perfect conditions would have taken additional soldiers with special skillsets, but the 151st ESB soldiers did not allow that obstacle to stop them from accomplishing the mission.
Kidd said, “Working alongside the Romanians has been great. They have been very gracious hosts, and we continue to accomplish success as a collaborative team”. The 151st ESB soldiers of the South Carolina Army National Guard are setting the standard for signal detachment missions such as Resolute Castle.
The mission of Resolute Castle 2017 supports Operation Atlantic Resolve: a NATO initiative desgined to increase shared operational understanding between soldiers at all levels of the armed forces and re-affirm member nations’ commitment to their mutual safety and sovereign borders.
Resolute Castle particularly focuses on engineer skillsets, deploying active Navy, Army Reserve, and Army National Guard engineer units to work alongside the Romanian 10th Engineer Brigade and the U.K. Royal Monmouthshire Royal Engineers on training infrastructure at the Joint National Training Center in Cincu, Romania.
| Date Taken: | 06.21.2017 |
| Date Posted: | 06.25.2017 04:52 |
| Story ID: | 239112 |
| Location: | CINCU, RO |
| Hometown: | BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA, US |
| Hometown: | CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA, US |
| Hometown: | CHATTANOOGA, TENNESSEE, US |
| Hometown: | COLUMBIA, SOUTH CAROLINA, US |
| Hometown: | GREENVILLE, SOUTH CAROLINA, US |
| Hometown: | LONGVILLE, LOUISIANA, US |
| Hometown: | MOBILE, ALABAMA, US |
| Hometown: | MONTGOMERY, ALABAMA, US |
| Hometown: | SUMMERVILLE, SOUTH CAROLINA, US |
| Hometown: | TIFTON, GEORGIA, US |
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