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Warriors in Peace Operations - Strategic Studies Institute - U.S. Army

Warriors in Peace Operations - Strategic Studies Institute - U.S. Army

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the NATO 4B. This satellite had not been used before, but it<br />

was planned to support any possible Bosnia network. NATO<br />

4B quickly became a new cussword for tactical satellite<br />

operators. It was obvious that there was a significant<br />

problem. Our most experienced operators were hav<strong>in</strong>g great<br />

difficulty gett<strong>in</strong>g on the bird. And once on, we were<br />

experienc<strong>in</strong>g significant problems with the switch digital<br />

transmission groups (DTGs). Every time we would<br />

troubleshoot and seem<strong>in</strong>gly isolate the problem, the<br />

symptoms would change. The tactical satellite operators<br />

struggled through. We sent e-mail forward through<br />

command channels document<strong>in</strong>g the problems.<br />

Dur<strong>in</strong>g July, the brigade decided to run the entire<br />

Grafenwoehr rotation for weapons qualification and soldier<br />

skills. It was a week with a tremendous amount of mov<strong>in</strong>g<br />

parts, forc<strong>in</strong>g a lot of decentralized decisionmak<strong>in</strong>g, with a<br />

centralized command and control. In terms of synthesiz<strong>in</strong>g<br />

staff coord<strong>in</strong>ation across the brigade, the week at Graf was<br />

an outstand<strong>in</strong>g success. We got our share of weapons<br />

qualification done, too. Brigade Exercise Roll<strong>in</strong>g Eagle was<br />

next on the calendar—2 weeks <strong>in</strong> August. Colonel John O.<br />

Welch was the Brigade Commander. What made this<br />

exercise so worthwhile was his decision to use this exercise<br />

to tra<strong>in</strong> by the numbers. We had many new soldiers s<strong>in</strong>ce<br />

the move <strong>in</strong> June, creat<strong>in</strong>g almost completely new<br />

organizations. The net result was that the soldiers ga<strong>in</strong>ed<br />

renewed confidence; all transmission shots came <strong>in</strong>,<br />

<strong>in</strong>clud<strong>in</strong>g great performance by TROPO. The 72nd<br />

BATCON put its fledg<strong>in</strong>g crew through its paces, and we<br />

built on the coord<strong>in</strong>ation among BATCON <strong>Operations</strong>, S2/3,<br />

and Adm<strong>in</strong>istrative Logistics <strong>Operations</strong> Center (ALOC),<br />

S1/4, that had served us so well through Atlantic Resolve<br />

the previous year. The 324th Signal Company put its new<br />

switch teams through their paces as well, and the Headquarters<br />

and Headquarters Company (HHC) cont<strong>in</strong>ued a<br />

great support tradition. All <strong>in</strong> all, it was a tremendous<br />

tra<strong>in</strong>-up exercise! September was supposed to be an<br />

off-month to allow the unit to catch up on some necessary<br />

7

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