SOUTHWEST ASIA (March 6, 2015) -- The group has executed thousands. They have beheaded, burned and enslaved people, all while broadcasting their particular brand of terror to the world via social media.
This is portions of Iraq and Syria today under the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, or Daesh.
To combat Daesh, the U.S. formed Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve, or CJTF-OIR, in October 2014.
The United States officially declared an end to Operation New Dawn - the campaign following Operation Iraqi Freedom - Dec. 15, 2011.
The campaign to oust Saddam Hussein, locate and destroy any weapons of mass destruction, and restore security under the new government of Iraq lasted nearly nine years.
Judging from the political discourse surrounding the Iraq war, most would find it difficult to imagine the United States would be sending Soldiers back to the region while Congress debated granting renewed war powers for military action.
This time, however, the enemy is different. Declaring a self-proclaimed caliphate, Daesh is bent on creating a state mirrored to its distorted interpretation of Islam.
Under the command of Lt. Gen. James L. Terry, the international coalition aims to rely on Iraqi security and new Syrian forces ground troops by building its military capacity, while leveraging U.S. and coalition air power to defeat Daesh.
The strategy may limit the risks to coalition military personnel, but it brings in a new problem set.
"We're fighting a war with someone else's troops on the ground," said Command Sgt. Maj. Michael Crespo, command sergeant major of 335th Signal Command (Theater) (Provisional) and native of Los Angeles. "To be able to communicate with them, and communicate with the other nations of the coalition, is not easy."
Crespo and his unit have been here since the beginning of Operation Inherent Resolve, or OIR, and have played an integral role in getting the communications infrastructure operational.
Seven Soldiers from the 335th were deployed to Iraq in the infancy of the CJTF-OIR with the mission to build the strategic communications structure that the coalition is currently using today.
The group deployed with 10 other Service members, five less than originally planned, with no Status of Forces Agreement yet in effect.
Together, they built the Joint Operations Center that serves as the command hub in Iraq for the coalition.
"We were originally told we were going to send 15 people up, and seven would be communicators. We were told that they had to be cut down to 10, so we were expecting to cut from our original seven, but we didn't," Crespo said. "Gen. Terry said, 'If I can't communicate, I can't fight.'"
Each country comes with its own security protocols and communication practices.
Crespo said no integrated communications structure has ever been built despite the more than 13 years International Security Assistance Forces, or ISAF, spent in Afghanistan for Operation Enduring Freedom.
"The permissions weren't there, the security wasn't there, but we're building that now," he said.
Still, lessons can be learned from Operation Enduring Freedom, or OEF. Instead of integrated communications, ISAF was able to share information with a combined enterprise regional information exchange.
"I think that we, at this early stage of OIR, have satisfying means of communication, but in the long run we need to establish common means, [like] the I-net we had during OEF, or the CENTRIX we had in ISAF," said Denmark Maj. Kim Michelson, a public affairs officer and member of the coalition.
One such system that CJTF-OIR is putting to use is the Coalition Partner Network. With it, nations are able to share information with one another easily and securely.
"We're able to talk to [coalition partners] and share documents, chat, and that really hasn't been done before," Crespo said. "That's the challenge. [It's] getting everyone to agree that this nation can talk to that nation through our network and to us."
In addition to establishing a communications infrastructure for Operation Inherent Resolve, the 335th led Operation Drum Beat in Afghanistan.
Operation Drum Beat involved the retrograde of equipment from Afghanistan after combat operations ended.
Some of the equipment that kept international forces communicating in Afghanistan is now in Iraq today serving the same purpose. However, most was brought back to Kuwait to be refurbished and pushed back out to units within the U.S. Army Central area of responsibility.
"A lot of people had to help. It wasn't just us," Crespo said. I'm in amazement of what [Soldiers] can do. At the beginning, it was just a network that worked, but they continued to improve the foxhole. It's just ingenuity and motivation; they wanted to make this work."
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