Delaware National Guard

112th Air Control Squadron based at State College, Pennsylvania, has satellite equipment setup and ready to support communications transimissions as needed. (US Army photo by Sgt. Kyran V. Adams)

FORT DIX, N.J. -- With links to worldwide communications sites, the 112^th Air Control Squadron, Pennsylvania Air National Guard, State College, Penn., provided the long distance power for the 261^st Signal Brigade during Grecian Firebolt 2001 (GF01).

Integration with the Air National Guard was a key element to the success of GF01, the largest peacetime, global communications exercise. Force integration, however, is nothing new to the 112^th.

The squadron has eight years’ experience participating with the Delaware National Guard in various exercises. However GF01 is a much larger than any of the previous support missions, according to Maj. Ricky Miller, Chief of Maintenance, 112^th Air Control Squadron.

"After all, no one branch can win a war by itself."

--Maj. Ricky Miller, Chief of Maintenance, 112^th Air Control Squadron.
In previous exercises, their signal "shots" might go from the Bethany Beach Training Site, Del. to Orange, Conn., but never anything on the scale of this worldwide mission, according to Miller.

During GF01, a small increment of the 112^th, along with six airmen from 211^th Engineering and Installation Squadron, Pennsylvania Air National Guard, assisted with the long-haul tropospheric scatter and satellite communications mission.

"Our satellite allows us to send a picture as far as the pentagon," he said.

On the squadron’s site is a satellite terminal on one side, providing the global Grecian Firebolt Video Teleconference (VTC) link to Fort A.P. Hill, Va., and the ‘tropo’ on the other side to Fort Devens, Mass. and Orange, Conn.

Another example of a long-haul communications task is when they take an "air picture." With radar setup within 50 miles of frontline, the 112^th can identify aircraft and other objects. Then, rather than separating the aircraft in the same way an air traffic controller might, the airmen try to bring the planes together. Their purpose: air refueling, directing to target, or friend or foe identification -- just to name a few.

While these are only a few examples of the capabilities of the Air National Guard’s state- of-the-art, long-haul communications technology, teamwork was the essential element in success during the exercise.

"We’ve all come here together to work together: Reserve, National Guard, Active, Army, Air," said Miller. "After all, no one branch can win a war by itself."