Photo By Sgt. Rocco Defilippis | Marine Sgt. Christian Valencia (center), exercise radio chief/lead planner and Queens,...... read more read more
Subscribe
LIBREVILLE, Gabon — Marine Sgt. Christian Valencia holds a cell phone to his ear while Zambian Warrant Officer 2 Lufuma Augustine punches a new frequency into a 400 watt high frequency radio.
On the other end of the line, Marines in Stuttgart, Germany listen for the Zambian radio checks.
"Nothing? Okay, tune to 19.630," Valencia, a Queens, N.Y. native, says.
As a small crowd of African communications officers and specialists begins to form around him, Augustine adjusts his radio and tries to raise the Marines once again.
"Uniform Sierra, Uniform Sierra, this is Zulu Mike Bravo: radio check, over," Augustine says into the receiver.
After a moment, the stream of constant static from the radio's speaker breaks, and the Marines on the other line respond from a distance of 5,396 kilometers away.
"Zulu Mike Bravo, this is Uniform Sierra, have you low but readable...how you me," the Marine says.
For Valencia, these few words are pretty special.
"That's the longest HF shot I've ever seen," said Valencia, the Exercise Africa Endeavor 2009 U.S. radio chief. "Considering the relatively low powered setup we have in Germany, it's pretty amazing that we were able to make it happen."
The U.S/Zambian communication check came as one of many types of communications actions associated with Exercise Africa Endeavor 2009, an annual U.S. Africa Command sponsored initiative to assist African militaries in improving their communications capabilities.
Almost 200 people from 26 countries and three international organizations are participating in this year's exercise.
The exercise is centered on both of the two focuses of military communications: data, which includes the hardware and software of computer networks, and radio, the radios used to send voice and data transmissions.
At the heart of the U.S. delegation are the Marines of Marine Forces Africa.
Coming Together
Marine Sgt. Zach D. Zapotoski, exercise data chief/lead planner and Lowville, N.Y. native, said the purpose of the exercise was to bring communicators from throughout the various economic regions of Africa to evaluate and standardize communication plans.
"We are testing to ensure that all of the different kinds of gear that each participant uses is compatible," Zapotoski said "Through this process we are collecting data, identifying gaps and shortfalls, and then working to address the areas where those gaps occur."
According to Marine Capt. Dave Fuller, exercise technical director and Easley, S.C. native, the effort to standardize is one of the main goals of the exercise.
"The first goal is to increase the interoperability with the countries that are going to be working with each other in the different African Standby Forces," Fuller said.
Because each nation brings different capabilities, experience levels and operating methods, Marine Sgt. Ryan Kish, exercise test network coordinator and Cleveland native, said establishing standard operating procedures was key to future success.
"The most important thing is that we are establishing SOPs," Kish said. "It's important because as the African nations work together in the future or when we work with them in the future, we can have that data to look at to see what worked and what needs a solution."
In addition to the technical and professional aspects of the exercise, Fuller said another important goal was to build and strengthen relationships.
"Our second goal is to pair up these nations to not only build up partner relations between us, but also to create and bolster partnerships between the African countries as well." Fuller said.
Establishing Interoperability
According to the Marines, the exercise is broken down into phases in order to establish the SOPs and collect all of the necessary data.
Both the radio and data portions have three phases of execution throughout the exercise.
According to Valencia, in the first phase of the radio portion of the exercise, each nation uses internal testing to ensure that everyone's equipment is compatible and functioning properly.
"Each nation generally has the same types of gear, but brands and capabilities vary," Valencia said. "So, in this first phase we are ironing out compatibility issues to get the ball rolling for the next phase."
During the first phase, Valencia said all of the internal testing happens between radios on the site here.
From the testing phase, the radio communicators move to phase two where they reach back to their home nation to establish communications.
Phase three involves the participants communicating from the host site to sites within the other partner nations' countries.
"We are taking the results of the various tests and compile them into a single package that can be used for future reference, " Valencia said.
Zapotoski said the phases for the data portion of the exercise run along similar lines as the radio portion.
During the first phase, each nation partnered with one other nation and constructed and tested a small network.
During the second phase, the nations built and tested a series of interconnected computers that share data within their associated economic region.
In the last phase, the regional networks were tied together to simulate a wide area network.
"Our goal is to be able to identify and configure a routing protocol that can be used to communicate on a basic level," Zapotoski said.
Building Strong Relationships
A quick visit to one of the tents or buildings on the site here reveals that there is more going on at the exercise than just technical exploits and data gathering.
Fuller said the exercise has provided the U.S. and African participants with an opportunity to share in both professional and personal ways.
Through the nature of the multinational makeup of the exercise and planned social events, the participants are given the chance to learn more about each other.
"It's a rare opportunity to interact with military representatives from 26 different countries at one time," Kish said. "So there have been plenty of chances to interact with each other and share in each other's culture."
"The whole experience has been tremendous," Augustine said referring to interaction he has had with the other African participants. "In the sense that we are all Africans and we each face similar problems, being able to cooperate and work together to solve some problems is very nice."
According to Fuller, various events designed to increase interaction and cultural sharing are built into the exercise itself, including traditional meals, social gatherings, team sports and even the exercise's location each year.
Fuller said that each year the exercise is held in a different country in order to increase its cultural exchange aspect.
For this year's exercise, the initial, mid and final planning conferences were all held in different countries.
"That's what this exercise is really all about," Fuller said. "Getting on the same sheet of music, as far as communication is concerned, and building those relationships so that either these partner nations can work together in the future."
Upon completion of the exercise, all U.S. service members returned to their home bases and stations.
Ghana is slated to host next year's Africa Endeavor exercise.
| Date Taken: | 10.14.2009 |
| Date Posted: | 10.15.2009 02:26 |
| Story ID: | 40141 |
| Location: | LIBREVILLE, GA |
| Web Views: | 385 |
| Downloads: | 338 |
This work, Africa Endeavor 09 Builds Relationships, Strengthens Communications, by Sgt Rocco Defilippis, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
No keywords found.
