For PRT Nangarhar’s S-6 shop, flexibility is the key to success

By U.S. Air Force 1st Lt. Casey Osborne

NANGARHAR PROVINCE, Afghanistan – Napoleon Bonaparte is often quoted as saying “The secret of war lies in the communications.” U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Justin Miller, Provincial Reconstruction Team Nangarhar tactical communications crew chief from Chicago, shares Napoleons sentiment: “I don’t want to sound cocky, but pretty much everything revolves around comm. People don’t know what you do until you don’t do it.”

In today’s high-tech world, computers and electronics dominate our lives to an astonishing extent, especially in the military. It is nearly impossible to accomplish anything for the U.S. military without functioning communications equipment. Reports units send to their headquarters, radio transmissions Soldiers outside the wire send back to their home base, even correspondence service members send home to their loved ones all rely on communications equipment, and all of PRT Nangarhar’s communications equipment relies on their seven-man comm., or S-6, office.

The S-6 shop has two main sections, said U.S. Air Force Tech. Sgt. Christopher Rich, PRT Nangarhar chief of communications systems from Lebam, Wash: radio and network. The radio side’s function is fairly self-evident: they keep the unit’s personal and vehicle radios up and running. The network side keeps the team’s multitude of computer equipment functioning. While both of these aspects of comm. sound relatively straightforward and simple, they actually represent some of the most challenging and critical aspects of the PRT’s mission.

The radio personnel accompany the PRT on every mission as radio transmission operators, said Miller. While they’re out, they ensure the PRT can communicate within its ranks and with the tactical operations center back on Forward Operating Base Finley-Shields.

 

“When we go on certain missions and we dismount and the different dismounted personnel are not within yelling distant or eyesight of another individual, they can just hop on that (multiband inter/intra team radio) and just get in contact with that person without even seeing them,” Miller said. “Or, if anything goes down, you can use (tactical satellite) to call in a bird if you need (medical evacuation) or anything.”

The network shops main duties revolve around simply keeping the three different computer systems operating, said U.S. Air Force Senior Airman Jennifer Aranas, PRT Nangarhar communications network crew chief from San Antonio. This involves generating user accounts, installing software the team needs to accomplish its goals and troubleshooting computer issues whenever they occur.

These summaries of S-6 duties belie one pertinent mitigating factor: the PRT’s communications staff is working in positions or with equipment they’ve had practically no experience with. For the network shop, only one of the three service members is a client systems administrator, said U.S. Air Force Senior Airman Mathieu Bargas, PRT Nangarhar communications network crew chief from Roseville, Calif. A CSA is trained at “putting out fires;” in other words, they solve individual users’ problems as they arise. The vast majority of the network shop’s current workload is centered on CSA work; as such, two of the three network Airmen have had to get up to snuff rather quickly.

As bad as the network shop’s ratio of one-to-two trained personnel sounds, the radio shop has it even worse: none of their service members are radio technicians by trade.

“With the lack of a radio troop, we had to learn almost from scratch how to use these radios, how to program them, how to fill them and how to troubleshoot them,” Bargas said.

Despite these considerable challenges, the S-6 office has performed admirably. Their response time to user complaints is near-instantaneous and radio issues on missions are almost unheard of.

When discussing his Airmen, Rich is justifiably proud of their accomplishments.

“I think they’ve done a wonderful job being able to adapt,” he said. “They’re not going to let anything stop them. They’re just going to push through to figure something out and I think that’s the reason why they’ve been so successful: their mentality and their approach to the whole thing.”

U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Justin Miller, Provincial Reconstruction Team Nangarhar tactical communications crew chief from Chicago, sets up a tactical satellite radio on Forward Operating Base Finley-Shields Feb. 13. (Photo by U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Scottie T. McCord, PRT Nangarhar public affairs)

U.S. Air Force Senior Airman Jennifer Aranas, Provincial Reconstruction Team Nangarhar communications network crew chief from San Antonio, installs new network cable at Forward Operating Base Finley-Shields Feb. 14. (Photo by U.S. Air Force 1st Lt. Casey Osborne, PRT Nangarhar public affairs)

PRT Nangarhar public affairs