|
AL UDEID AIR BASE, Qatar -- Communication is a necessity for every military branch. In a
time when the War on Terror and Operation Inherent Resolve
call for small units of highly-trained “operators” to
conduct low-profile, confidential missions, reliable and
secure communications and connectivity have only become more
essential.
In the Air Forces Central Command area of
operations, supplying these capabilities falls on the
shoulders of the “Six Shooters” of the Communications
Directorate.
Members of the Air Forces Central Command Communications Directorate pose near a t-wall at Al Udeid Air Base, Qatar April 6. The directorate members, known as the "Six Shooters" are responsible for maintaining secure, reliable lines of communication across the AFCENT area of operations. (U.S. Army photo by Spc. Travis Terreo) |
“Our role is to resource and advocate
for all of the units and service providers within the AFCENT
area of operations,” explained Col. Jeffrey “Jeff” Granger,
director of Cyber and Command, Control, Communications, and
Computer systems. “We work with elements at Shaw Air Force
Base, South Carolina, to provide C4 infrastructure that
allows the Combined Forces Air Component Commander, Lt. Gen.
Charles Q. Brown Jr, to accomplish the mission.”
One
aspect of Brown's mission, as explained in his AFCENT
priorities, is defending the region. Within the scope of
this priority, he has stated that it is AFCENT's
responsibility to “aggressively plan, prepare and present
executable options while standing ready to lead or support
U.S. Central Command contingency operations.”
In
order to fulfill that task over a geographical area that
stretches from Egypt to Yemen to Pakistan to Kazakhstan,
Service members must be able to stay in contact across vast
distances and from remote locations.
“The
Communications Directorate is also responsible for forward
deploying several teams to directly support mission
objectives,” said Granger. “The teams, consisting of mostly
Air National Guardsmen, are charged with engineering and
installation of communications infrastructure anywhere it is
needed. They are hugely instrumental in building our
communications abilities across the area of operations.”
In addition to constructing and maintaining a
foundational communications infrastructure, the
Communications Directorate has established a Communications
Contingencies Branch.
“My Airmen and I are
responsible for managing emergency communications in the
AFCENT area of operations,” said Capt. Lisa Phillips,
officer-in-charge of the Contingency Communications Branch.
“We place, maintain, and update custom tailored
communications kits with selected units so that, no matter
what happens, their commanders will always have a link to
higher command.”
The Contingency Communications
Branch also ensures that Service members in the most remote
locations have the communications capabilities they need,
explained Phillips. The inability to run a cable out to
those locations does not make communications ability any
less important for the people there; it just means the
Communications Directorate will find another way.
“We
are also responsible for the AFCENT Communications Control
Center,” said Granger. “It is basically the area of
operation's communications watchdog.”
The ACCC tracks
and coordinates all communications and events, conducts
frequencies management in the area of operations and uses
that information to ensure that any systems maintenance or
issues do not significantly disrupt ongoing operations. They
also notify Service members of any upcoming down-times or
maintenance so they can schedule or act accordingly. In this
way, they minimize the effects of unfortunate, but
necessary, periods of inaccessibility to the various systems
in use.
“We have our hands in pretty much
everything,” said 2nd Lt. Ryan Faucher, the executive
officer for the AFCENT Communications Directorate. “We have
become an electronics based fighting force, and it is the
Communications Directorate's job to make sure all of these
systems and devices are operating the best they can.”
The scale of what the communications directorate does is
huge, explained Granger, and the only way to keep up with
the demand, and do the best job possible, is to integrate
our forces across the AOR. To that end, the directorate has
Service members placed throughout southwest Asia fulfilling
the mission.
“Most of the time, if someone calls, it
is because there is something wrong,” said Granger. “That
means the most important aspect of what we do is ensuring we
don't hear from anyone.”
By U.S. Army by Spc. Travis Terreo, AFCENT Public Affairs
Air Force News Service
Copyright 2016
Comment on this article |
