Photo By Sgt. 1st Class Shane Klestinski | Army Sgt. Rachel Smith (right), multichannel systems operator, and Army Pfc. Lamar...... read more read more
Today’s wired – and wireless – world relies heavily on a variety of communications capabilities that enable life as we know it. In this world where the greatest crises often occur when everyday things that are taken for granted suddenly stop working, the Florida Army National Guard’s 146th Expeditionary Signal Battalion (ESB) provides one of those things so often taken for granted.
The 146th ESB conducted its annual training (AT) in June 2023 at Camp Blanding, Florida. This two-week training session gave its Soldiers valuable opportunities to learn how to establish an operational area, correctly set up the unit’s hi-tech equipment, and coordinate with offsite contacts to calibrate that equipment’s more intricate parts and processes, all to become mission ready.
The 146th ESB, headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida, provides tactical communications assets that have supported overseas missions, as well as humanitarian relief operations in the Sunshine State. This year’s AT allowed them to focus on strengthening mission-essential competencies, particularly in providing voice and data service in austere environments, such as combat zones and natural disaster areas.
“A training experience like this allows Soldiers to do what they joined the Army to do,” said Spc. Jayvon Stone, a multichannel transmission maintainer/operator assigned to the 146th ESB’s Company A. “I joined because I love [information technology]. Being able to use a machine to get on a bird in the sky, then using it to pull internet service, and being able to see how all those parts work together, that’s really cool to me.”
According to Stone, whether a hurricane has turned an area into a barren wasteland with downed powerlines, or completely flooded it, the 146th ESB’s equipment can provide the communication services necessary for civilian agencies or military units conducting disaster relief operations.
“Training like this helps develop more competent operators who can receive a mission, figure out what resources they need, move to the field, set up their equipment, and get it operating so that phones and computers work for the people we’re supporting,” said Army Staff Sgt. Patrick Meek, the 146th ESB’s operations noncommissioned officer in charge.
A central piece of equipment the 146th uses in accomplishing its mission is the satellite transportable terminal (STT), which Meek describes as “a giant SINCGAR.” A SINCGAR (single channel ground and airborne radio) is a device commonly used in the Army for field communications. A highly mobile satellite system, the STT provides secure voice and data transmission for warfighters.
“We often train to the scenario that a nuclear bomb has dropped in x-location and left the place a barren wasteland,” Meek said. “We go in and get communication up and running to act as an emergency stopgap while civilian agencies prepare to come in and provide a more permanent solution.”
The 146th trains its Soldiers to conduct a vital process known as a “peak and pol” with the STTs. The dishes on STTs shoot a beam into the sky to connect with orbiting satellites, and those beams need precise coordinates to establish those links.
“An inch to the right or left could be miles and miles away in space,” Stone said. “We call offsite contacts, who use their own resources to tell us exactly where to aim the STT for the best link with that intended satellite for the best signal.”
The use of satellites does underscore the importance of space assets for the 146th in accomplishing its missions on the ground in modern-day operations.
“If we don’t have assets in space that can work with STTs, or Soldiers who can operate STTs, then our communications are limited to the curvature of the planet, and whatever is in the way, like trees and mountains,” Meek said. “You can’t shoot [a signal] through a mountain with an RF antenna no matter how hard you try, so that signal has to go up, so space assets are some of the most important that we have.”
###
| Date Taken: | 06.08.2023 |
| Date Posted: | 06.19.2023 10:01 |
| Story ID: | 447253 |
| Location: | CAMP BLANDING, FLORIDA, US |
| Web Views: | 1,181 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, 146th Expeditionary Signal Battalion sharpens its communications edge, by SFC Shane Klestinski, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
No keywords found.
