Comm Airmen prepare for major career field transformation

  • Published
  • By Tech. Sgt. Michael O'Connor
  • 31st Fighter Wing public affairs
AVIANO AIR BASE, Italy (AFNS) --  Twenty communications Airmen stationed in Germany took part in a training exercise Sept. 18 to 24 at Aviano Air Base, Italy, in preparation for the largest transformation in the history of Air Force communications which is to be completed this October.

When it's all said and done, more than 27,000 enlisted Airmen will transition from 15 communications Air Force Specialty Codes to 11 new cyberspace support specialties designed to help Air Force operators face future challenges of working in and protecting a cyber environment.

"We train and maintain at home, and work when we're deployed," said Staff Sgt. Frank Barone, a satellite communications specialist with the 1st Combat Communications Squadron at Ramstein AB, Germany. "This is our first (temporary duty mission) training and learning each other's duties, roles and responsibilities."

The training afforded the visiting combat communicators a chance to share information and get hands-on experience.

"We have a lot of new people in the unit and this TDY provided a variety of training opportunities, such as being a part of a convoy and moving equipment to a location and setting up combat communications," said Tech. Sgt. Jonathan Gifford, a 1st CBCS ground and radio maintainer. "With both radio and SATCOM AFSCs merging to form transmission systems, this type of training allows both to get hands-on experience in building up and tearing down the equipment and learning what each other does."

The 1st CBCS mission is to provide air and ground deployable combat-ready communications and air traffic control services and equipment for wartime, peacetime, restoral and contingency taskings in support of Department of Defense, Joint Chiefs of Staff, U.S. European Command, NATO, and U.S. Air Forces in Europe missions in Europe, Africa, Asia and the Middle East.

In many cases, the unit's mission requires its members to be some of the first U.S. forces to arrive at an operating location. Because of the nature of the operation and the services the unit provides, unit members are frequently among the last personnel to leave, hence the unit motto, "First In--Last Out."