Airmen Set Up Kandahar Communications

June 8, 2009

A week ago, this vast expanse of land represented particles of dust, rocks, hardened dirt and scrubs located on the other side of Kandahar Airfield's perimeter, mirroring the landscape of this portion of southern Afghanistan.

Senior Airman Sergio Saenz and Airman 1st Class Frank Fauland perform routine maintenance May 17 on a satellite dish at Kandahar Airfield, Afghanistan. Combat communications Airmen are responsible setting up and maintaining base telephone and internet communications. The Airmen are RF transmissions engineers and satellite communications technicians with the 451st Combat Communications Squadron at Kandahar.

Today, the area is bustling with Airmen dragging cables and laboring to position and erect equipment to establish a combat communications hub charged with providing communications capabilities for the expanding Air Force presence at this bustling NATO-run base. The flurry of simultaneous base setup operations, while conjointly running a mission, is just one of many signs of the Air Force's growing presence on this base in southern Afghanistan.

"We're going to be the tactical communications hub for all of Kandahar," said Capt. Michael Archibeque, deployed from the 5th Combat Communications Group, Robins Air Force Base, Ga., and the officer-in-charge of the effort. "It's pretty cool for us to come in here, set this up and run it all the way up until we leave, when a more permanent facility is completed."

Sitting amid several tents and communications equipment that has already been linked after several days of calibration, the yet-to-be-named camp will eventually be a "tier two" communications facility, capable of providing communications access for the area's outlying Airmen.

According to the Airmen charged with the mission, the operation is already up-and-running while other portions of the site are still under development, a testament to the combat communications group's calling to setup this type of capability in remote locations.

The communications center allows Air Force units residing at Kandahar Airfield to communicate both locally and with higher headquarters through a variety of mediums to further the goal of winning the war in Afghanistan's restive south.

"We've been here for about seven days," said Captain Archibeque. "(After taking two days to get acclimated) we've been working 16 hours a day, non-stop to get everything setup."

Featuring more than a majority of active-duty Airmen with several civilian employees, the organization is made up of a wide swath of specialties ranging from satellite technicians, network operations and civil engineers, who provide the facility with critical power and support their heating, ventilation and air conditioning requirements.

"Our mission is to get 'comm' up anywhere, anytime," said Staff Sgt. Jonas Brooks, one of the 5th Combat Communications Group's civil engineer Airmen from Birmingham, Ala.

"We had a lot of work to do when we first got here; we had to set up a ground (to eliminate static electricity from equipment), place generators and get our security barricades in place. We really have had a lot of help from the 451st Air Expeditionary Civil Engineering Flight and the RED HORSE flight here at Kandahar; we couldn't have done this without them," he said.

With the added capabilities the new site provides, the combat communications Airmen are be able to provide internet access to more than 1,500 users and link the units in the area with vital communications capabilities using high-capacity servers located in the constantly air-cooled tents.

Additionally, the some of the site's specialized equipment provides the Airmen with the ability to communicate over large geographic areas.

"We set up this large aperture, multi-band antennae that we use to communicate with satellites," said Senior Airman Sergio Saenz, an Albuquerque, N.M., native who is an RF Transmissions engineer and satellite communications technician deployed from the group. "Comm plays an important role in the deployed environment; we have a pretty long reach."

With many Air Force and Coalition units spread out across the base, the center will provide an upgrade over the existing communications assets the base was previously using until a more permanent facility is completed in the near future, said Captain Archibeque, also an Albuquerque native.

With the communications up and running, the captain and his team said they are proud of the tremendous effort it took to create a communications asset for the Air Force in the middle of a wasteland. "The power production and HVAC guys are some of the most important people have," he said.

Sergeant Brooks took the compliment casually.

"We came here to work, we expect to be tired. I didn't come here expecting to play a round of golf."