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Clockwise from right: IT2 Miguel Gomezonboard a Black Hawk helicopter on a tripto the International Zone (IZ) in downtownBaghdad. IT2 Velez Charles and Lt. DaleShigekane on the roof of Adnon Palace installinga microwave antenna to providevoice and data services to the National JointOperations Center. Shigekane and Charleswork in the U.S. Embassy in the IZ. Shigekaneis the director of network operations for thethe U.S. Embassy for the MNF-I Coalition InformationCoalition Sharing (CIS) Forward.He frequently flies by Black Hawk helicopterto different theater locations to installthe IWS collaborative tool suite. IWS is acommand and control chat tool on the coalitionnetwork, the Combined EnterpriseRegional Information Exchange Systemor CENTRIXS. Headrick says the work he isdoing is saving time, money and lives.“Troops and field commanders can talk toeach other in chat rooms, if their securephones are not working. They can discusstroop movements …. They actually usewhat I do to keep them from having totravel. It is really dangerous here to movefrom one location to another, so there isless need for troop movement and lessrisk,” says Headrick.Headrick calls IWS a weapons program.All of it is Web based. “It has different chatrooms…. It is based on a very wide rangeof technologies. It is like AOL (AmericaOnline) with a Webcam. It is specificallyfor the military. We built it for ourselves.”IT2 Jamone Robinson works in the JOC asa webmaster. “I make sure there is adequatebandwidth; I consider anyone whoworks in the JOC to be my customer,” saysRobinson.To prepare for deployment, Navy personnelspent two weeks at Fort Bliss, Texas,for weapons training. In a heightenedsecurity posture, personnel wear body armor(ballistics flak jacket with plates) andKevlar helmets. They also carry an MCU2Pchemical mask. Officers carry a 9mmweapon and ammunition with them at alltimes. Enlisted personnel carry an M-16rifle with ammunition.IT1(SW) Steven Schwalbe says being inIraq is a challenge in itself with the heat,dust storms and daily rocket and mortarattacks by insurgents. He works in theJOC doing basic IT work using WindowsXP Professional.“We fix Microsoft Outlook problems,printer issues and we set up conferencecalls … whatever needs to be done.”Schwalbe has been at Camp Victory aboutthree months. He says there are gooddays and bad days.“Sometimes we wear bulletproof vests.We have to carry weapons with us andsometimes we have to wear Kevlar helmets.Basically, it’s been pretty good forus here, but sometimes it can get a littlehectic during the day because you don’tknow what’s going to happen.”IT2(SW) Miguel Gomez, who is workingin the knowledge management processat Camp Victory, is building a database ofsubject matter experts for a yellow pages/white pages directory. It will help personnelfind the assistance they need by typinga query for an online search.Lt. Brian Jones is an IP working in theKnowledge Management Division onCENTRIXS.“The people we support are decisionmakersand those who provide logisticssupport to the troops in the fight. Wehelp to make our customers work smarter,more effectively and more efficiently,”says Jones.IT1(SW) Bruce Long is the Electronic KeyManagement System (EKMS) manager forCamp Victory. Long performs convoy dutyon dangerous routes to deliver communicationssecurity (COMSEC), i.e., electronic orpaper keymat for cryptographic equipmentor encryption keys for secure telephones.He also stands tower watch dutyalong the perimeter of the camp.IT1(SW) William Behr handles command,control, communications and computerissues for all joint, coalition and Iraqi SecurityForces operations. “I support communicationsand information systemsfor 135,000 deployed air, ground and seaforces from 29 nations across Iraq,” Behrsays.Behr resolves system outages and workswith all the military Services and civiliancontractors throughout Iraq, an arearoughly the size of California.“My customer base is the whole countryof Iraq, but my more notable customersinclude General George W. Casey, CommandingGeneral Multi-National Force–Iraq, Lt. Gen. Thomas Metz, Commander,Multinational Corps–Iraq (MNC-I), the JOCand the U.S. Embassy.”The JOC tracks information and intelligencefor all operations in the Iraq area ofresponsibility. The embassy is, of course,the United States diplomatic arm in Iraq.“For the MNF-I and the MNC-I commanders,I ensure that they able to directly communicatewith the President of the UnitedStates, the Secretary of Defense and theSecretary of the Army on a weekly basis,”says Behr.Some military units have pitched in tobuy satellite systems for television or Internetservice. But Behr says the militaryCHIPS Jan-Mar 2005 11