1st CBCS setting up communication lines multinational exercises

Published April 30, 2008
By Air Force Staff Sgt. Tammie Moore
Medical Central and Eastern Europe Exercise Public Affairs

DIVULJE TRAINING BASE, Croatia - -- Getting work accomplished can be very challenging in this day and age without computer connections and phone lines - enter the 1st Combat Communications Squadron (CBCS).

To do this, members of the 1st CBCS began arriving here more than 10 days before other participants, so they could have networking and phone systems in place when the two exercises kicked off.

Members of the 1st CBCS, based out of Ramstein Air Base, Germany, are currently deployed here to keep participants of two U.S. European Command (USEUCOM) sponsored exercises linked to one another and the rest of the world.

Croatia is welcoming exercise participants and support personnel from 15 nations who began arriving here April 21 in preparation for the Medical Training Exercise in Central and Eastern Europe 2008 (MEDCEUR 08). The exercise, scheduled for May 2 through 15, is a U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff regional/multilateral exercise sponsored by USEUCOM and hosted by Croatia this year in the spirit of "Partnership for Peace" (PfP).

MEDCEUR brings more than 400 multi-nationals together in a joint training and validation medical exercise aimed at the interoperability of multi-national disaster response, humanitarian and peacekeeping missions.

"We're here to provide communication support to the participants of MEDCEUR," said U.S. Air Force 2nd Lt. Dan Casey, 1st CBCS communications officer in charge of MEDCEUR. His 15-man communication team brought all of the equipment they would need to set up services for a small base including an initial communications package and a satellite.

"When we arrived here commercial internet and Croatian phone lines were already in place," Casey said. "We had to establish a Non-secure Internet Protocol Routing network (NIPR), a Secure Internet Protocol Routing network (SIPR) and a Defense Switched Network (DSN). You don't get those services through what was already here. The communications systems that were already in place would have had a hard time supporting the hundreds of exercise participants who will be arriving here."

The locally established systems provided a starting point for the 1st CBCS Airmen, but more communication infrastructure was needed to support the exercises.

"One really unique thing we are doing here is utilizing radio frequency (RF) to span more than six miles of air space to Lara Naval Air Station (LNAS) in order to provide non-secure voice and data SIPRNET. LNAS is the forward operating base for Combined Endeavor (CE)," said U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. J.C. Rainey, 1st CBCS systems integrator supervisor.

This achievement was done using the Theater Deployable Communication suite.

Normally one RF module is used at a location. To provide the communications needed here, however, five RF 'mods' were linked together, Rainey said. "Linking together five at one time is not typical but was required in this situation since we have to provide services over such a long distance."

Providing this distance support has caused challenges to members of the 1st CBCS.

"The most challenging part is the six-and-a-half mile microwave link between the two points," Casey said. "As far as I know, we have never done this before in this type of environment. It took some time, but we made it work."

Despite the challenges the communications squadron airmen had to overcome, they seem to have found this experience rewarding.

"It has been very rewarding to provide communication out here during this exercise to the different nations," the lieutenant said. "It has been a great experience."

Sergeant Rainey agreed, "I have enjoyed watching the camaraderie that happens in this type of environment. I've seen squadrons start integrating together, multinational relationships form and the export of good will."