News

Robins officer aids Afghanistan during election

  • Published
  • By 1st Lt. Pamela Stauffer
  • 78th Air Base Wing Public Affairs
A 116th Air Control Wing air battle manager used his capabilities to make a positive impact in Afghanistan during Operation Eagle Express.

Capt. Jay Vizcarra helped preempt attacks during the Afghan elections by hand-delivering geospatial information to regional commands in Afghanistan and ISAF Headquarters prior to the voting. Peripheral commands in Afghanistan also benefitted from Vizcarra and his team's effort.

"Prior to our arrival, the HQ International Security Assistance Force had updated equipment but peripheral (regional) commands did not have sufficient technology to support their mission," said Vizcarra, an air battle manager. "Coalition forces were using paper maps and sticky notes to plan and execute."

About 25 laptops and several other computers were distributed to North, South, East, West, regional commands and HQ ISAF in Afghanistan.

"We wished we could have delivered hundreds more computers to assist international security and coalition forces," said Col. Victor Kuchar, the director of field operations at the Pentagon.

One mission planning mapping capability, called Falcon View, was developed by researchers at Georgia Tech Research Institute. Falcon View supports the display of aeronautical charts, satellite images, and elevation maps and allows overlays that can be displayed on any map background. Talon View, a modified version of Falcon View, was distributed during the mission to coalition forces in Afghanistan.

The team also broke barriers by spending time with ISAF Headquarters teams to find solutions to the release challenges.

"Many classification barriers existed between ISAF, NATO and coalition forces concerning imagery products." Vizcarra said. "We were able to provide the unclassified imagery to regional commands in Afghanistan in time to support the elections."

The team also supported over 18 Provincial Reconstruction Teams, consisting of small numbers of troops, engineers and doctors by establishing imagery mapping systems at forward operating bases. The PRTs catalogued IED and small arms fire attacks that were used in daily foot patrol mission planning for rebuilding projects.

In President Obama's December 2009 address to the nation, he stated that although the Afghan election was marred with controversy, the election reached a critical milestone by advancing the country.

For meeting the needs of the regional commands in such a short period of time, the Operation Eagle Express planning team won an Intelligence Achievement Award.