Joint system training enhance situational awareness Published Oct. 9, 2006 By Army Sgt. Chris Jones 40th Public Affairs Detachment SOUTHWEST ASIA (AFPN) -- Airmen operating the global command and control system here are providing combatant commanders a visual map of servicemembers on the battlefield via satellite."Basically, you can view everything in the (area of responsibility)," said Staff Sgt. Michael Harvell, an instructor for the system. "You could actually see the entire world, but you wouldn't want to do that -- it would be too much information." Sergeant Harvell and a team of more than 20 instructors are deployed here to train servicemembers and civilians on the global command and control system, or GCCS. The instructors are members of the 333rd Training Squadron at Keesler Air Base, Miss. The team of instructors also includes contractors and Department of Defense civilians. Although based in Mississippi, they travel all over the world for training. In the last few years, Sergeant Harvell and his team have been to Colorado, Florida and Hawaii as well as Germany, Japan and South Korea to conduct training. "This will be used by the entire military as their command and control system," he said. Sergeant Harvell said he has enjoyed being able to work with U.S. Army Central in Southwest Asia. "Before we got here, we only had one Army guy and one Marine in our class," Sergeant Harvell said. "I like working with other services. It's good (that) we're all using this system." The GCCS works with the Blue Force Tracker to make commanders continuously aware of where their troops and valuable assets are on the battlefield. Blue Force Tracker is essentially the forward element of the system, allowing GCCS operators to manage from a distance, said Sergeant Harvell. Vehicles in Iraq and Afghanistan are equipped with BFT. The GCCS allows the military to track valuable assets, provide emergency communication and guide search and rescue forces to quickly locate, identify and communicate with servicemembers at risk. "If you were in charge of running a war," Sergeant Harvell said, "you would want the latest and greatest information as to where your assets are on the battlefield. This gives you that."