Andersen Airmen hear Dragon Thunder

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Shane Dunaway
  • 36th Wing Public Affairs
ANDERSEN AIR FORCE BASE, Guam (AFNS) --  Andersen Air Force Base Airmen sharpened their expeditionary skills during Exercise Dragon Thunder Nov. 17 through 21 here.

Members of the from the 644th Combat Communications Squadron set up camp under a sea of camouflage netting in tents filled with towers of electronic equipment for the field training exercise set in the fictional location, "Guamania."

The 644th CBCS Airmen come from a diverse array of career fields ranging from network control center operators to electrical power production technicians.

"The mission of the 644th CBCS is to provide communication capabilities for combatant commanders as well as the Airmen in our area of responsibility," said Capt. Michael Turner, the 644th CBCS Network Operations Flight commander. "The 644th CBCS is a self-sufficient organization that provides its own power and shelters, and can deploy to a bare-base location and set up shop within 24 hours."

Some of the capabilities the 644th CBCS provides include secure and unsecure ultra high frequency communications, land mobile radio communications, secure and unsecure phone lines and satellite communication links that transfer the data to its destination. 

The squadron's network control center can support up to 1,000 users at any given time and up to eight telephone switchboards can support more than 2,500 users, Captain Turner said. The squadron also provides a global broadcast satellite, which serves a dual-role as a link to news channels and as a file server.

"This exercise lets us know all the challenges we may face when we come out into the field," said Tech. Sgt. Jason Wilson of the 644th CBCS. "It shows us the effectiveness of our extensive training and lessons learned from any hiccups along the way. This is the best way to actually prepare yourself for future missions that we may not see as well without the lessons learned from these field training exercises." 

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