Air Force recognizes Cobra Gold help desk team for outstanding support

Courtesy Photo | Air Force Col. Dave Newman, deputy commander of the Combined Forces Air Component Commander, thanks the Cobra Gold Support Group Information Systems Help Desk team for their technical support of the CFACC during the exercise. He visited the team Feb. 7 to recognize several Soldiers who assisted his Information Management Officer build a new operating system. In three days they accomplished this mission-essential task that normally takes a team three months. (U.S. Army photo by Liana Mayo)  

THAILAND

02.07.2010

Courtesy Story

U.S. Army Pacific Public Affairs Office

By Liana Mayo

UTAPAO, Thailand - U.S. Air Force Col. Dave Newman, deputy commander of the Combined Forces Air Component Commander, visited the Cobra Gold Support Group Information Systems help desk, Feb. 7 to recognize several Soldiers for their technical support of the CFACC during the beginning of Cobra Gold 2010, the joint and combined multi-national exercise here.

In three days, these Soldiers helped accomplish mission-essential tasks which normally would take a team three months.

"Without your hard work and technical proficiency, the CFACC would not have been able to accomplish its mission, and I am glad to see your joint effort recognized at this level, where the rubber meets the road," said Newman.

While Newman expressed his sincere gratitude to the entire help desk team, he presented his commander's coin to three Soldiers who were particularly instrumental in the success of the CFACC mission. Sgt. 1st Class Michael Simpson and Sgt. Rhodney Montague, both Information Systems Team Chiefs assigned to US Army, Pacific's Joint / Coalition Network Division section and Spc. Matthew Muehlhausen, a military intelligence system maintainer for I Corp (Forward) based at Camp Zama, Japan, received coins of excellence.

The CFACC's mission is to support communication services for multi-national technicians who liaison between intelligence officers, planners and operators who coordinate use of Air Force assets to effectively support air operations during Cobra Gold.

Upon arrival to Red Horse, this element of the Air Force was utilizing hardware that was not included in the posted list of hardware supported by the image created for the exercise. To help correct this, the CGSG Help Desk team worked with the CFACC's Information Management Officer, Staff Sgt. Aaron Bray, to build a new operating system.

"Bray had the difficult task of generating and replicating a coalition wide-area network image for the Air Force," Simpson said. "This means he had to build an operating system from scratch, which includes many highly-detailed application configurations."

"It was a pleasure working with such a competent member of the Air Force. A task that would normally take a section three months to generate, Bray accomplished in three days," Simpson said. "After he got his Air Force client machines up and running, he started helping us respond to trouble tickets. Bray became an honorary member of our team."

"These Army technicians played a vital role in our achieving the communications needed to accomplish our mission at Cobra Gold," said Bray, system administrator, Theater Battle Management Core System, 157th Air Communications Squadron, St. Louis. "They supplied software, equipment and points of contact, and answered thousands of questions a day. There is no doubt that without their help, we would not be up and running."

Maj. Zachary Coyan, officer in charge of the CGSG Help Desk Team, invited Lt. Col. Daniel Reynolds, OIC of the Cobra Gold Network Operations Security Center to attend Newman's visit. The NOSC provides radio network support for the exercise. As OIC, Reynolds, whose duty position at home station is G3 Chief of Operations for the 311th Signal Command headquartered at Fort Shafter, Hawaii, oversees all signal operations provided for the exercise, to include the 311th Signal Command's 30th Signal Battalion, which operates an integrated help desk with the CGSG Help Desk.

"The 30th supported this effort remotely through the network," said Coyan, whose duty position at home station is U.S. Army Japan & I Corps (Forward) G6 Exercise Division Chief. "Our Soldiers worked seamlessly together to accomplish our mission, despite coming from different commands. Our goal for next year is to improve our efficiency even further."

• Date Taken: 02.07.2010
• Date Posted: 02.08.2010 21:35
• Story ID: 45114
• Location: TH