LITMIR.BIZ

      Figure 50. The support battalion needs communications to provide support.

      Then MAJ Jacobi’s communications section established the network systems and tactical communications links and brought them operationally “on-line.” Having completed this, they took the Air Force communications “off-line” and walked together with them, helping to carry wiring harnesses, equipment, and other connectors down the runway to new workstations in the Snake. Next, they were “logged back in” through the digital network “cloud.” The other half of the network then followed, with all its hardware and cables being incorporated in the eight-section “temper tent” that was the joint operations center (JOC) for the JSOTF headquarters. Thus, operational communications were never lost, despite the rapid relocation of equipment and personnel. With the 112th Signalers and the Air Force communications element helping, the joint base station was completed in less than 48 hours. “We went from dirt to a functional J6 in thirty-six hours—bottom line—it worked,” reported MAJ Jacobi.

      Shortly after COL Mulholland arrived at K2, CPT Steve Marks (pseudonym), commander, A Company, 112th Signal Battalion, was tasked to be fully mission capable to support future missions by 13 October. Marks, having successfully led his unit during Operations JOINT ENDEAVOR and JOINT GUARDIAN, was determined not to be the weak link in supporting those missions. The 112th Signalers met the challenge and established a secure video teleconferencing (VTC) link from the theater back to the United States. At the height of combat operations, A Company was conducting 10 to 14 VTCs a day. These conferences enabled the TF Dagger and JSOAC commanders to provide real-time reports, to recommend future operations, and to receive guidance directly from CENTCOM’s leaders in Tampa. First Sergeant (1SG) Martin Masterson (pseudonym) summed up the unit’s performance: “We don’t fail; we just don’t fail.”

Building the JOC Inside the “Snake”: TF Dagger’s JOC

      After three false starts, CPT Carlos Hernandez (pseudonym) had been told that the 5th SFG intelligence section would leave for Central Asia on 8 October. This time it did, and Hernandez and the intelligence staff landed at K2 in the predawn darkness of 10 October. The staff had been cramming on Afghanistan since 9/11. Before then, the former 82nd Airborne Division infantry platoon leader only knew that it was “a mountainous country with lots of snow in the winter” in the CENTCOM region. Since then, his section had been searching classified and public data bases for information on Afghanistan and had talked with analysts at the Defense Intelligence Agency, seeking background material on several Afghan warlords in the Northern Alliance; namely, Rashid Dostum, Mohammad Atta, Fahim Khan, Ishmail Khan, and others. To their dismay, there were no personality data bases available or any information about any subordinate leaders. Copies of The Bear Went Over the Mountain and The Other Side of the Mountain, books on the Soviet war in Afghanistan in the 1980s, were circulated among the staff.

      Along with the intelligence he needed to collect and analyze, CPT Hernandez was also focused on setting up his S2 “shop” in the JSOTF headquarters. En route to Uzbekistan, he chanced to meet MSG Jason Bennington (pseudonym), a 5th SFG staff NCO during a refueling stop at Sigonella, Sicily. Bennington was returning from the site survey of the former Soviet air base at K2. Elements of the Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC) and the 528th SOSB were already there, Bennington reported. Air Force aircraft and Army helicopters were at the airfield, ready to conduct search-and-rescue missions in support of the bombing campaign that had begun on 7 October. On a hand-drawn sketch of the airfield, Bennington pointed to a spot next to the runway and said, “Here’s the space for the JSOTF.” The Uzbeks had granted the Americans use of abandoned parts of the active air base. Since the Air Force had already occupied the only building, the 5th SFG staff would have to create their task force headquarters with tents.