CLINTON, Ky. – Soldiers from the Kentucky Army National Guard’s communication/IT support section’s Mission Command shop mobilized to western Kentucky to conduct an emergency deployment readiness exercise Aug. 12-16.
The Rolling Thunder 2024 Kentucky interoperability communication exercise simulated lost communications due to an earthquake in the New Madrid Seismic Zone, which spans western Kentucky and six other states.
The exercise included checking military radios, using high-frequency and satellite systems, ensuring different communication systems work together, and restoring cell phone service.
U.S. Army Maj. Jason Spayd, the joint operations center coordinator, planned the exercise with members of emergency management, the Kentucky Air and Army National Guard, and the Department of Military Affairs.
Restoring radio communications is a high priority for the Kentucky National Guard’s mobile Mission Command. Teams with expertise in multiple radio technologies are immediately activated to establish talking communication across Kentucky without wireless communications towers that may lose power.
Mission Command first employs the military’s high-frequency radios with a very high-frequency commercial satellite link to speak with local emergency management teams with civilian equivalent, battery-operated radios and those that can be powered by mobile generators.
Next, satellite data capabilities can provide temporary connectivity for cellular phone traffic.
By establishing these communication channels, the KYNG’s mobile Mission Command can speak directly to the counties and regions affected by a disaster and transfer voice and data from anywhere in the commonwealth to similar command or response teams provided by the Kentucky Emergency Management or FEMA, including the Emergency Operations Center stationed in Frankfort.
Chief Warrant Officer 3 Jeremy Jackson said the mobile command center trailers used by the KYNG are towable and can be used almost anywhere to establish communications via satellite. A satellite connection enables radio internet protocol to connect landline phones and HF/VHF radios across vast distances.
Regions with restored communications can then report the status of damage to infrastructure, transmit requests for supplies, and communicate during search and rescue efforts, thus saving lives.
“Our main purpose for this exercise is long-range, over-the-horizon communications,” said Jackson. “For this exercise, everything is down. Internet, cell phones, DMARCS. So, we link these radios to the satellites and then we can reach out to teams that were cut off in other cities.”
Jackson said the KYNG equipment is not for overseas or combat theater use.
“Our mission is for domestic operations only,“ said Jackson. “This is one of the reasons KYEM includes the National Guard for these exercises because our Department of Military Affairs support is directly intended for it.
“Interoperability is the key term for this mission,” added Jackson. “Our job is to connect the Kentucky National Guard with KYEM, Kentucky State Police, and the emergency managers of each county.”
During the exercise, a mobile command center was brought to Clinton and a main command post was set up at the Wendell H. Ford Regional Training Center in Greenville.
Master Sgt. Clinton Ragsdale, noncommissioned officer in charge of the command center in Greenville, said another part of the exercise was to get radio communications to isolated areas.
“During a case like the New Madrid, most likely bridges could collapse,” said Ragsdale. “We then have smaller, fly-away kits that can be flown on Black Hawk helicopters and taken to places that cannot be accessed by wheeled vehicles.
“One of the future projects we are working on is to get our [mobile command center] trailers airlift-rated so they can be loaded on to the Kentucky Air National Guard’s C-130s and flown to where they are needed,” he said.
Ragsdale emphasized the importance of providing leaders access to critical information to help them better understand the situation and make informed decisions.