TOCEX training prepares Ironhorse HQ

By Pfc. Bailey Anne Jester, 1st BCT PAO, 1st Cav. Div.September 7, 2010

FORT HOOD, Texas - Soldiers assigned to the 1st Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, assemble the main tent used during the brigade Tactical Operations Center Exercise, here, Aug. 23. This exercise ensures the brigade headquarters has a fully f...
1 / 2 Show Caption + Hide Caption – FORT HOOD, Texas - Soldiers assigned to the 1st Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, assemble the main tent used during the brigade Tactical Operations Center Exercise, here, Aug. 23. This exercise ensures the brigade headquarters has a fully f... (Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL
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FORT HOOD, Texas -The Soldiers of the 1st Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division headquarters set-up all shelters and network equipment of their tactical operations center (TOC) during an exercise, here, Aug.23 - Sept. 2.

This two week exercise ensured the brigade headquarters has a fully functional operations center for when they deploy, and ensures all systems are fully functional, integrated, tested and proven to work, said Miami native, 1st Sgt. Uhuru Salmon, the first sergeant of Headquarters and Headquarters Troop, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division.

"The importance of this mission is to make sure our tactical systems we use for reporting to the brigade commander, the situation on the battlefield and the systems that we use to talk to the subordinate units and squadrons are working," explained Philadelphia native, Sgt. Maj. Robert Leimer, the Ironhorse operations sergeant major.

"Once we validate [the equipment], we know that we can move this [Tactical Operations Center] anywhere in the world, set it up and conduct combat operations with minimal disruptions," Leimer continued. "Because we have already completed the validations and made sure all the equipment works."

Before the unit can complete validations, it is important to receive their equipment.

"When [the unit] came back from Iraq, the equipment was either outdated or had been updated while over there and it was used. So what you do is you take it in and put it into reset," said Charles City, Iowa native, Shawn McCumber, the Digital Master Gunner for the Ironhorse Brigade. "Then it comes back to the unit. Now the unit, and the reason for this exercise, is the unit needs to set all that equipment up and validate themselves."

The exercise began the morning of Aug. 23, transporting many truck loads of equipment from the motorpool to the training site. Equipment included vehicles, tents, generators, computers and networks. Seven hours later in the 107 degree heat, the tents were assembled, and the provided air conditioning and electricity were installed.

The event continued with help from the communications shop, which wired each section with network cables to build the network and connect a wide variety of digital systems to each other.

"Ironhorse set their TOC up in a day, and by the next day they were running network cables," McCumber stated. "We've found our problems, our issues, and are looking at resolving them."

According to McCumber there are too many systems to count, but the mother of the systems, known as the "System of Systems", is a command and control system. "Without the systems and the network, this event would be next to impossible to complete."

The outer-shell equipment used during the tactical operations center exercise, or TOC EX,

is not new to the U.S. Army, but is new to the headquarters of the Ironhorse brigade.

Before the 2009-2010 deployment, the headquarters troop used and older variety of tents. Since their return in January they have turned in the old equipment and now use a tent system known as the Deployable Rapid Assembly Shelter, or DRASH.

"We will be using the [DRASH] at [the National Training Center]," Salmon explained. "So this exercise is definitely important for NTC, because by the time we get out of this we'll have learned a lot about what did and didn't go right."

It is important to understand how to set-up and operate these tents when we arrive at NTC, Leimer explains. "If we can't talk over our tactical systems then we cannot complete our mission out there."

After six to seven months of planning the TOC EX, it was a success, said Salmon.

"This exercise, to me, was a complete success," McCumber commented. "Due to the fact that we have found our shortcomings and are fixing them."

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