• Military Menu                       

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Industry
• Operations
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• WMD
• Intelligence
• Homeland Security
• Space

48th Brigade digs fiber optic cable

Multi-National Force-Iraq

Sgt. David Bill
48th Brigade Combat Team PAO

CAMP STRIKER , Iraq – The daunting task to connect the 48th Brigade Combat Team so each unit can communicate with each other through a high-speed fiber optic cable has been given to Staff Sgt. Tom Laidlaw.

“We (48th BCT) are building permanent infrastructure for fiber optics and for future operations and units,” Laidlaw said.

Directed by the 3rd Infantry Division, “this project will provide for high-speed and real-time information from the brigade headquarters to each battalion and company headquarters building, the Mayor's cell and the local prison,” Laidlaw added.

The project has been underway for the past month and Laidlaw expects that this phase of the project should be completed in another month.

Laidlaw was selected because of his experience, not in the military where he works in the brigade current operations section as an operations NCO, but in his civilian career. He has 10 years designing and engineering fiber optic networks. He is currently an outside plant engineer/manager for Dynamic Technical Services, based in Lewisville , Texas , and he has worked there for the past two years.

With the support of the 220th Combat Support Engineers from Festus , Mo. , and the 327th Signal Company from the 3rd Inf. Div., each phase of the project is conducted in three parts: survey, design, and engineer.

Surveying the project includes walking the areas, looking at the terrain, and marking the ground where underground utilities are located.

Designing the project requires drawing out the best, and most cost-effective route to build, which includes looking at connections, extensions from a main line and fiber distribution panels.

The engineering aspect of the project requires one to physically dig in and out of the conduit and fiber optic lines from point to point. This is where the 220 CSE and the 327th Signal Co. come in.

“They're good operators, Laidlaw said of the engineers and signal Soldiers. “They know what they're doing and build it the way it is designed.”

These Soldiers are digging more than 44,500 feet of conduit and running 48,000 feet of fiber optic cable with these current projects. Additional projects are being considered in the future so Laidlaw said he and his team will be very busy while here in Iraq .”