News

Joint exercise tests communications capabilities in simulated combat environment

  • Published
  • By Wayne Crenshaw
  • 78th Air Base Wing Public Affairs
Communications specialists in the military spend a lot of time practicing their craft, but usually when they do so they are communicating with members of their own unit.
 
In a combat environment, however, they are communicating with many other units throughout the Air Force and even from other military branches.

Giving communication units a more realistic experience is the purpose of Air Force Special Operations Command's Annual Joint Lightning communication exercise, at Robins. Nearly 100 Airmen from Air Force communications units from the around the country arrived here Monday and will remain until June 25 for the exercise. Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve Command units are also participating, along with two Marines and a unit from Japan. The 5th Combat Communications Group at Robins is hosting the event.

The purpose of the exercise is to test each unit's ability to set up operations and effectively communicate with each other in a combat environment. They set up three separate areas at Gator Air Base and the South Training Area.

Senior Airman Eguzki Zellner from Special Operations Command at Hurlburt Field, Fla., said she learned earlier this year how important such training can be. She was deployed to Haiti the day after the earthquake and set up communications for responding troops. Prior exercises effectively prepared her unit for the challenge, she said.

"It's important because it gives us an opportunity to rehearse so that when we do it for real we are all on the same page," she said.

Exercise director Albert Reyna said while communications equipment and methods are supposed to be standard, units have a tendency to do things just a little different, and the exercise helps to see those differences. Participants also have problems created for them, such as malfunctioning equipment, to see how they respond.

The units have the capability of going into any area of the world and having basic communications set up within 15 minutes, and within 8-10 hours having full communications established, including phone service and internet connection, said Capt. Gary Osland, a communications officer with the Air National Guard's 230th Combat Communications Squadron from Dothan, Ala.