Getting TACtical

By Staff Sgt. John HealyMarch 5, 2015

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FORT IRWIN, California -- It's lonely up on the hill.

The temperature has dropped from 75 degrees during the day to 50, and the wind is picking up.

Pfc. Daniel Porter is pulling guard, perched in a stone bird's nest overlooking a three-mile sweep of the Mojave Desert. Behind him sits the Tactical Operations Center, the mobile command platform for the command of the 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division nestled in a draw in the ridgeline.

Today marks the start of the 2nd ABCT's rotation at the National Training Center in Fort Irwin, California. The first real challenge is moving each of the brigade's seven organic battalions and four attached battalions out onto the battlefield. A slow line of headlights leads back to Fort Irwin's Rotational Unit Bivouac Area.

"I love the view," Porter says. "I like being out here. It's just a little boring."

Porter is an all-source analyst. His job is to receive information from various units on the battlefield and use it to track both friendly and enemy troop movements. That, and to pull guard duty. Everyone pulls guard duty.

"We are a very lucrative target," says Col. Sean Bernabe, commander of the 2nd ABCT. "You've got to be thinking that, especially here in six days, there are some enemy Soldiers that get a four-day pass if they kill this TAC."

"You can't be lazy," Bernabe says.

Porter doesn't mind.

"Out here you roll around in the dirt a little bit. I like that," Porter says. "I feel more like a Soldier."

Upon reaching the site that morning, the team was able to establish communications and begin directing troop movement within the hour.

Radios are the most important part of the TAC, says Capt. Jackson McGee, a brigade staff officer in the 2nd ABCT.

"If we can't communicate, then we can't track anything, and we can't share that common operational picture," McGee says. "We try to build the biggest and most clear picture possible, so the commander can direct the forces in the most efficient way to get to the final end state of the mission."

McGee arrived at the brigade only two weeks before the exercise. He, along with many other members of the TAC, have never worked together before.

"You get thrown in the situation, and everybody wants to succeed, so everybody works together," McGee says. "If the brigade doesn't have a unified effort, it can't succeed."

The one veteran of the TAC is Sgt. Rafael Troya, who has been a member of the team since the 2nd ABCT returned from Afghanistan last year. His assigned task is that of battle noncommissioned officer. Using a radio and magnetic map board, Troya tracks the movement of the brigade's forces in real time.

"Normally it's reserved for E-6s and E-7s, but because of the manning that we have here in the TAC, they gave me the responsibility," Troya says.

"It's definitely a lot of work, but not too hard," Troya says. "I'm always up for a challenge."

This iteration of NTC will provide a new challenge for the brigade, as the scenario shifts from counterinsurgency to decisive action. Now, the Soldiers of the 2nd ABCT will be facing an opponent with the same capabilities. This change comes in preparation for the unit's upcoming deployment to Korea, where it will be the first rotational brigade combat team to guard the border between North and South Korea.

McGee remains confident in the 2nd ABCT's ability to succeed. They key, he says, lies in understanding the mission.

"As long as every single element involved in the plan understands the intent and the end state of the mission, they can take disciplined initiative to make decisions to reach that end state," McGee says.

This idea is crucial, as the constantly changing situation on the battlefield rarely allows for perfectly informed decisions.

"It never works out the way you plan it," McGee says. "Murphy's law, Mother Nature, the enemy, everything has some sort of impact on the mission."

At the center of the operation is the TAC, tasked with keeping everyone in the brigade moving in the right direction.

"It's not a hard job," McGee says. "It takes a lot of time. We get tired. People get frustrated sometimes, but it's not hard."