Airman helps Army get connected

  • Published
  • By Army Pfc. Melissa Stewart
  • Combined Joint Task Force-82
LOGAR PROVINCE, Afghanistan (AFNS) --  Shoot, move and communicate is a Soldiers motto on the battlefield, but without stable Internet connection, communication would not be possible.

Staff Sgt. Jeremy Emond at Combat Outpost McClain does his part in aiding Soldiers communicate by providing Internet access.

"Here I'm supporting the warfighters at ground zero," Sergeant Emond said.

Although having Internet access may not seem to be important, nearly everything from tacking intelligence reports, planning operations and tracking troops outside the wire depend on Internet connectivity.

"Before he came out here the (secure Internet protocol router) was really slow, and with most of my job I use SIPR," said Army Spc. Daniel Bailey, a Headquarters Company, Task Force Spartan intelligence analyst. "Since he's come, everything has been really fast."

Sergeant Emond is one of nearly 80 Airmen from around the world that deployed to various locations in Afghanistan to operate the virtual secret Internet protocol router, nonsecure Internet protocol router, access point, which provides much needed Internet access for Soldiers.

"This is probably the most fun I'll ever have on deployment," Sergeant Emond said. "It's given me a chance to see how the war is being fought from inside a command post."

VSNAP is a system developed early this year to provide Soldiers in remote locations with Internet connectivity.

"It's a great system because the disc can be set up in about 15 minutes and you can probably be passing traffic in a half an hour," Sergeant Emond said. "It can pull power of a running Humvee. You don't even need a generator to operate the system."