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Patriot crews ready to defend desert sites

by Capt. Enrique T. Vasquez

TACTICAL SITE, Southwest Asia (Army News Service, March 18, 2003) -- What seemed routine a few months ago can now mean the difference between life and death for air defenders deployed to the Persian Gulf region to aid in Operation Enduring Freedom.

Checks, tasks and training on a Patriot missile tactical site ensure the combat survival of soldiers in Battery B, 5th Battalion, 52nd Air Defense Artillery Regiment, 11th ADA Brigade from Fort Bliss, Texas.

"We wake up before 5:30 a.m. ... after breakfast we perform preventive maintenance checks and services, PMCS's, on vehicles," Staff Sgt. Robert Griggs, headquarters platoon sergeant, Battery B, 5th Battalion, 52nd ADA Regiment said. "Later in the day we spend time filling sandbags to build bunkers for protection."

"Sandbags placed on a bunker help protect us from missile debris falling from the sky and small arms fire from the enemy," said Capt. Moises Castillo, Headquarters and Headquarters Battery, 2nd Battalion, 43rd ADA Brigade.

Classes in first aid and nuclear, biological, and chemical, NBC survival, are provided to soldiers regularly.

Repetitive training helps soldiers perform NBC tasks as second nature and improves survivability, said Sgt. 1st Class Mark W. Klaers, 32nd Army Air and Missile Defense Command.

"We spend a lot of time training on critical NBC tasks along with classes in first aid, which are essential to survival during combat operations," Griggs said.

"Soldiers learn to drink water (through protective masks), decontaminate, exchange NBC suits, and other essential survival tasks," Klaers said.

In addition to NBC classes, Patriot soldiers also hone in on navigation skills with modern positioning technology, or conventional referencing with a map and compass. In a desert without terrain references, soldiers can easily get lost without proper training.

"We conduct global positioning receiver, 'plugger,' training and practice applying it to land navigation in the desert," Griggs said. "We teach soldiers to set waypoints to be used as references when navigating."

Not only is training important, air-defense soldiers said that maintenance and operational readiness of the Patriot system is just as vital.

"Our unit has several launcher crews that, every morning, perform equipment checks on the Patriot launchers. They ensure the Patriot system has no faults," said Staff Sgt. Larry Poole, Patriot launcher platoon sergeant, Battery B, 5th Battalion, 52nd ADA.

"We change our launcher crews out every 24 hours," added Poole.

"Soldiers in the fire control platoon also run self-test diagnostic checks daily on the Patriot engagement control station and radar. Maintenance of the ECS and Radar includes cleaning the air filters on a periodic basis," said Sgt. 1st Class Curtis Hobson, fire control platoon sergeant, Battery B, 5th Battalion, 52nd ADA.

"Patriot maintenance is where the rubber meets the road; if a maintainer does not keep the Patriot system clean and operational, the system could fail," said Master Sgt. Gina Myers, Patriot launcher crewmember, 32nd AAMDC. "The end result could be a SCUD missile impacting, causing a devastating loss of life."

(Editor's note: Capt. Enrique T. Vasquez is the public affairs officer for the 32nd Army Air and Missile Defense Command.)