FORT DRUM, N.Y. -- When it comes to keeping the skies over the installation safe, Fort Drum air traffic controller Jeremy Tripp knows automated systems could never fully replace the instincts and wisdom of human experience.
It's been a mindset worth keeping as Tripp, while doubling as the lead systems administrator of the Army Airfield Automation System (AAAS) over the last six years, has helped transform the ground- and airspace-control systems at Fort Drum.
He describes the elaborate AAAS as a communications system that basically allows facilities like base operations, radar approach control, range control and the tower to talk to one another without ever lifting a phone. He said he's careful to make computer updates that help and don't hinder controllers working in one of the world's most stressful professions.
"Sometimes, people can make changes that actually increase workload," the Carthage native said. "I (wanted) any changes I make to reduce workload and improve operations, rather than making it more hectic."
Air traffic controllers at Fort Drum's Wheeler-Sack Army Airfield juggle everything from jumbo jets of deploying and redeploying troops; Kiowa, Chinook, Apache and Black Hawk helicopter traffic buzzing in every direction; and remotely flown MQ-9 Reaper unmanned aerial vehicles and fighter jets operated by a U.S. Air Force contingent based at the airfield.
They also work inside one of only three airfields in the entire Army that offers an aerial port, radar approach control and flight following services -- all three of which synchronize local, national and international air traffic.
Flight following services include flights in and out of Canada, since Fort Drum airspace abuts Canada to the north and portions of Lake Ontario to the west. Syracuse Approach Control coordinates flights to the installation's south, while Boston Center is responsible for all flights to the east and above 10,000 feet of Fort Drum.
As the Army's premier power-projection platform in the Northeast, WSAAF accommodates up to 25,000 passengers on more than 200 aerial port missions and conducts 120,000 approach control operations, 120,000 tower operations and roughly 80,000 flight following operations every year, according to Joe White, chief of Fort Drum's Aviation Division and the airfield's central manager.
Balancing daily operations with the latest state-of-the-art technologies has become something of an art form for White, an Air Force veteran whose 38 years of air traffic control experience includes working at the Federal Aviation Administration, two Army airfields in California and at Fort Drum since 1993.
He said a key component of the airfield's progress and innovations in recent years is attributable to Tripp, whom he considers one of the most knowledgeable and qualified persons on the AAAS, or Integrated Dissemination and Display System 5 (IDS5), as the product is known in the aviation industry.
"Jeremy's background on it was such that he knew the IDS5 had capabilities way beyond (the Army's) initial intent for it as a weather display system," said White, who hired Tripp shortly after buying the IDS5. "With Jeremy's help, we have taken this system … and morphed it into this gigantic piece of equipment that is a mission-multiplier and that reduces workload.
"Our IDS5 is what it is only because of his capabilities as a system administrator."
Army's 'leading-edge guy'
Tripp learned the IDS5 in the U.S. Air Force, where he served for six years as an air traffic controller. Within days of exchanging his uniform for civilian clothes in 2006, he was hired by White to work in air traffic and spearhead the AAAS at Fort Drum.
Since then, Tripp has been recognized several times for his achievements on the airfield -- most recently receiving the Garrison Commander's Hero of the Day award. His work on the IDS5 has also had far-reaching effects.
Before the Army standardized the AAAS at 26 airfields, members of the Product Manager for Air Traffic Control (PM ATC) at Redstone Arsenal, Ala., were invited to Fort Drum by White to examine the IDS5 alongside another system being considered.
"I challenged the Army to bring the (other) system here and to install it side by side with our IDS5," White said. "Hands down, it was the IDS5 that was better."
White said Tripp's extensive efforts in tailoring the system here helped Army leaders to ultimately make their decision three years ago to implement the AAAS Armywide.
"PM ATC will tell you that we are the Army's leading edge with the IDS5, and Jeremy is our leading-edge guy," White said.
Incorporating everything from air traffic control and weather to artillery training and firefighting, White said the IDS5 makes operations efficient, reliable and secure.
Tasks, manuals, references and real-time information, including weather and equipment statuses, are all combined and accessible on a single, automated display.
During the buildup, Tripp continually took requests for upgrades to the system. Each time he successfully programmed a function, efficiencies were created and overall workloads were reduced.
"The process involved going around to other places, like base ops, and getting an idea of what they did and how they might benefit from an automated system versus using (the phone and) pieces of paper," said Tripp, noting that base operations manages everything from runway and lighting to flight plans and air crews.
He said another major consideration when programming the IDS5, different from his days with the Air Force, was dealing with the unique circumstances and flight patterns of Army aircraft.
"Helicopters have different procedures," he said. "They don't do the same thing as fixed-wing.
"With helicopters, the entire airport becomes a runway."
Exporting expertise
At the time of PM ATC's visit, Fort Drum's AAAS was about 70 percent of the way built, Tripp said. Now, the AAAS database is more than a gigabyte in size, packing in some 2,500 pages of information to be constantly updated and shared.
Early on, the manufacturer of the IDS5 worked closely with Tripp to program the system, such as interfacing AAAS with the FAA's National Airspace System, which ensures that flight plans registered with the NAS are visible to base ops and other airfield assets.
Following the IDS5's implementation Armywide, Tripp said other administrators often did not realize the system's strong potential.
Having had a head start and having developed so many unique features, Tripp's work was exported to other Army airfields to be copied or analyzed for ideas.
In time, Tripp said he received many calls from other Army locations asking him how to automate operations by increasing the AAAS's capabilities.
"When they see what the system can do, they want to adopt it," he said. "If they come here and see it actually working, they say, 'I want that.'"
Sometimes, other facilities required more than consultation, and Tripp exported his expertise to a greater degree.
Such was the case with the airfield at Camp Humphreys in South Korea. Tripp spent about a month creating an automated function that allowed air crews, base ops and controllers in the tower to effectively communicate through each phase of a flight plan.
"A freshly trained administrator is going to have a really difficult time building a system that is capable of doing that," Tripp said.
In addition to Camp Humphreys, Tripp's skills were tapped by Marshall Army Airfield at Fort Riley, Kan., where he spent time on temporary duty helping the air traffic control facility staff there develop their AAAS database.
White, whose fingerprints are on virtually every improvement at Fort Drum's airfield since 1995, including the expansion and reconstruction of three runways, the aerial port mission, the rapid deployment facility and a planned 160-foot control tower, said other Army posts are starting to see how spectacular the IDS5 really is.
"In large part, it is because of Jeremy's knowledge of this system," White explained.
For his part, Tripp said he's grateful for the role he could play in such important missions.
"There's a sense of belonging in that I can walk around these (facilities) and see work that I have done and how operations have improved since arriving here," Tripp said. "It's (also) rewarding to know other parts of the Army and other air traffic control facilities have seen those improvements, too."
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