Courtesy Photo | CAMP SHELBY, Miss. (Sept. 3, 2005) Spc. Cheri Cramutolo, Third U.S. Army Public...... read more read more
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Story by Spc. Jonathan Montgomery
Third U.S. Army Public Affairs Office
ATLANTA (Sept. 2005) - A two-person team of public affairs Soldiers from Third U.S. Army's Digital Video and Imagery Distribution System (DVIDS) recently arrived back in Atlanta after a three-week mission providing video broadcasting and data transmission capabilities to commanders in support of Joint Task Force-Katrina (JTF-K).
The task force was the Defense Department's focal point to support the Federal Emergency Management Agency's (FEMA) relief efforts along the Gulf Coast following the devastation brought on by Hurricane Katrina.
"From day one until the day we left, the situation was really high energy," said Spc. Tanya Van Buskirk of the Third Army DVIDS team that visited the region. "The first few days, nobody wanted to sleep. Everybody wanted to help."
DVIDS quickly became a vital contributor in relaying the audio and visual content of the fast-breaking humanitarian relief operations following a directive from the Office of the Secretary of Defense Public Affairs that all imagery collected from deployed teams, services public affairs teams and Combat Camera go through Third Army's DVIDS Distribution Hub in Atlanta.
"We went out there to facilitate transmissions for public affairs detachments in the field," said Van Buskirk about the use of DVIDS, a satellite communications system designed by Third Army to support deployed forces in the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility, which spans from the Horn of Africa to Central Asia.
DVIDS links civilian news media to deployed military units serving in places like Kuwait, Iraq, Afghanistan and now stateside. One way DVIDS facilitates this information flow to the civilian viewing audience is by providing remote interviews with commanders and subject matter experts in the field.
In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, Third Army's DVIDS managed a network of 10 transmitters from U.S. Northern Command Headquarters in Colorado to transmitters during JTF-K operations. In a short period of time, Third Army's team in Atlanta had facilitated and distributed more than 2,100 video packages, 135 interviews and all of NORTHCOM's press briefings.
"Third Army has the only capability like this in the Department of Defense," explained Lt. Col. Will Beckman, director of Third Army's DVIDS operations. "I am proud that Third Army's publics affairs expert capability is recognized and in demand."
Though DVIDS was originally designed for contingency operations overseas, the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina mobilized the network of portable satellite transmitters for use on the home front.
Upon arriving Sept. 2 at Camp Shelby, Miss., the team wasted no time in getting to work alongside the First U.S. Army Public Affairs Office.
"We set up the DVIDS transmitter right away and did test interviews in preparation for interviews with First U.S. Army Commanding General and Joint Task Force-Katrina commander, Lt. Gen. Russel Honore'," said Van Buskirk, Kirkland, Wash. native and member of the 304th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment out of Fort Lawton, Wash. Honore' used DVIDS to discuss the conditions around Mississippi and New Orleans with national media outlets like CNN, FOX and NBC.
After spending several days in Mississippi, the DVIDS team traveled to New Orleans where they met with members of the 82nd Airborne Division from Fort Bragg, N.C., and the 10th Mountain Division from Fort Polk, La.
"It was great the way everyone in uniform worked together to accomplish the mission," said Carson City, Nev. native Spc. Cheri Cramutolo of the Third Army DVIDS team, which soon moved to the Port of Orleans where they met with members of the Louisiana State Police Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) unit.
There they met with Coast Guard Vice Admiral Thad Allen, who was appointed to direct recovery efforts in and around New Orleans, and conducted several interviews with Allen while aboard the USS Iwo Jima.
Van Buskirk said being a firsthand observer to the wreck and ruin in New Orleans, Mississippi and elsewhere was a benchmark event, with nothing she has seen in her life to compare it to.
"We went into the hardest-hit parts of the city with the SWAT guys," said Van Buskirk. "Garbage and other debris, downed trees and power lines, dead animals, black mud contaminated with toxins and feces, beds and linens hanging out of broken doors and windows, boats in the middle of the road you couldn't see concrete or clean streets. There wasn't any thing that wasn't damaged."
"It was a pretty challenging environment to take pictures and shoot video in," she added of the experience. "It's unbelievably surreal."
After capturing helicopter glimpses of distraught places, like in St. Bernard Parish and New Orleans' Ninth Ward, with members of the 82nd Airborne Division, the DVIDS team rode with members of the 10th Mountain Division on a convoy mission to deliver supplies to relief workers. During the convoy's trek past people pumping water out of their homes, between 70 to 100 pallets of water and up to 40 pallets of Meals, Ready to Eat (MREs) were delivered via relief teams in a 20-truck convoy.
Overall, Third Army's DVIDS conducted more than 60 video transmissions of unedited footage and live interviews during the three-week mission spent along the ravaged Gulf Coast.
"This amount of transmission by Third Army's DVIDS ensured that U.S. military forces were very, very visible to the American public. This visibility resulted in increasing the nation's confidence in the military despite the strong criticism of the government's response," said Beckman.
Beckman especially praised the success of his troops who deployed to the region not only to transmit video, but also to educate senior officers about the capabilities DVIDS could bring to the operation, namely transmitting and reaching back to a state-of-the art distribution hub in Atlanta.
"I couldn't have asked for a better effort," he said of his Third Army DVIDS team. "They brought back phenomenal results."
| Date Taken: | 10.25.2005 |
| Date Posted: | 10.25.2005 15:55 |
| Story ID: | 3478 |
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| Web Views: | 531 |
| Downloads: | 243 |
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