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Navy JICO Battles Communication Challenges in Afghanistan

Navy Newsstand

1/14/2003 11:25:00 AM

By Chief Journalist (SW) Douglas H. Stutz, Joint Task Force Southwest Asia Public Affairs

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (NNS) -- Operations Specialist 1st Class Robert Payne has not done much involving navigational equipment lately. There really is not a need for his nautical skills on a dusty plateau in Central Asia in the landlocked country of Afghanistan.

Yet that is precisely where the native of Amarillo, Texas, found his services required recently. Payne, forward-deployed from Navy Center for Tactical System Interoperability (NCTSI) Detachment 5, Yokosuka, Japan, assisted Operation Enduring Freedom forces by helping establish secure communications networks for the runway at Kandahar International Airport.

"I'm over here in Southwest Asia filling an O-3 billet as a joint interface control officer (JICO)," Payne explained. "It's my job to help with the tactical data link involving all branches of the services. We are in a joint environment in this theater, with members of all our services, as well as from coalition allies like the British. With these kinds of assets, we sent a group of us from every branch to lend a hand to the Marines at Kandahar."

Kandahar is still in the middle of a combat zone, even though this former Taliban stronghold is now firmly in hands of coalition forces. The past months have had a grenade attack in a local market injuring several soldiers, gunmen from a passing vehicle wounding a U.S. soldier, and rocket attacks from the surrounding hills have thudded near the base.

According to Payne, there was even a homemade rocket attack the day before he landed. The aim was off, but the lingering knowledge of a foe lobbing unpredictable ordnance remains. "We figured that attack was just a way to welcome us in-country," quipped Payne.

On site, Payne assisted in the need to co-locate a computer based communication radar system. Under normal conditions, a simple enough task. Yet renovations and repairs to the airfield, the largest in Central Asia, have not been an easy task. A combination of years of neglect, civil war and an extensive bombing campaign by coalition aircraft has heavily damaged the runways and surrounding area.

When the U.S. Marines took over the airfield mid-December 2001, there was unexploded ordnance, booby traps and land mines scattered amongst the torn and buckled tarmac. Although some of runway was usable at that time, there were sizable bomb craters, plus a huge amount of debris and shrapnel that needed to be repaired, cleared and removed. Payne and his crew, however, applied themselves immediately to the task at hand and had the entire project completed in less than a day out of the week spent there. The rest of the time was applied interfacing, coordinating, and getting up to speed on the varied communication links used at the base.

"We tried to familiarize ourselves with all of the systems used by us to link up our communication between ground-air-surface and sub-surface," Payne said. "Whether they are satellite, HF, UHF, land lines, or microwave, all our systems mix together. It is our job to take all of these system which are independent and often unrelated to each other, and connect them to act with each other to provide an overall picture."

As one of the approximately 50 JICOs in the military, of which 20 are in the Navy with only a handful who are enlisted, Payne knew a forward deployment was in the calling. He figured on working on the Arabian Peninsula, but not anywhere near Central Asia.

"Kuwait I could envision," Payne said, "but Kandahar? Never. Our forces have definitely made it a lot better than what it was. The base is still a work in progress. Being in the field like that, it took us three days to just clean some of the gear from all the accumulated dust and dirt that blows through the area. But being there allowed me the opportunity to see the gear in the field, know how to operate it, and get to know our forces who use the equipment."