HomeNewsFeatures

Features
Air Power

FEATURES

Airmen keep communication flowing

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Dilia Ayala
  • 332nd Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs
CAMP TAJI, Iraq (AFNS) --  It is often said communication consists of three parts: the sender, the message, and the receiver of the particular message. It is also said that if there is a glitch with any of the three parts, the communication cycle is broken.

A team of joint expeditionary tasking Airmen here work to make sure the vital cycle is not broken, thus contributing to overall mission accomplishment. Overall, 1,500 JET Airmen with the 732nd Air Expeditionary Group serve at the more than 60 locations throughout Iraq.

"Our job as computer-system administrators is to issue, maintain and get (computer) accounts open," said Staff Sgt. Juan Gallegos, a 518th Tactical Instructor Company system administrator and assigned to the 732nd AEG. "We manage the network and keep information available to all the users, as well as keep the network secure. Essentially, we keep the communication flowing."

Sergeant Gallegos said he is one of a handful of Airmen assigned to the Army and charged with maintaining and managing the base's computer network. All are responsible for keeping their customers happy by ensuring all their computer-system needs are taken care of in a timely matter.

"As a network administrator, I'm responsible for operating and maintaining the switches and routers on the strategic networks," said Senior Airman Jerry Sanchez, assigned to the 732nd AEG. "I'm part of a team that is responsible for ensuring that the lines of communications on the network are up and running.

"Without us, the units on the camp would have a severe setback while trying to accomplish their missions," added the Allen, Texas, native deployed from Lackland Air Force Base, Texas.

As part of his weekly duties, Sergeant Gallegos, who is deployed here from Hill AFB, Utah, teaches a class that decreases the amount of time servicemembers have to wait for a computer issue to be resolved.

"I conduct information management officer training," said the sergeant, a native of Robert Lee, Texas. "We train these IMOs so they will know the basic techniques to troubleshoot the computer system. That way it will make our job easier, and it keeps the customer satisfied. If it was just us, we'd have a bunch of computers lined up (waiting to be fixed). By training individuals at every unit, computers can be troubleshot instantly for certain issues and can be back up in minutes instead of a couple of days."

One of Sergeant Gallegos' newest IMO students, Navy Chief Petty Officer Edward Brunner, the Scan Eagle Sentinel Site 2 officer in charge here, is thankful for the training.

"We have a lot of personnel coming and going, a lot of equipment changes so we have to have a unit administrator, otherwise we'd be asking the (system administrators) to be coming over all the time," said the native of Woodbridge, Va. "So by taking this course, I am able to take a lot of the workload off of them and fix it right there on-site. It's a lot faster and more efficient that way."

Maintaining communications across base and throughout the area of responsibility is vital to mission accomplishment, Sergeant Gallegos said.

"If the network is down, the communication cycle is broken," Sergeant Gallegos said. "We keep the communication flow open, and it helps keep the mission going. We ensure the communication system is available 24/7 and decrease the amount of downtime as much as possible."