AUGUSTA, Ga. – More than a dozen leaders from the Signal Operations Support Specialist (25U) course received upper-level training on Integrated Tactical Network (ITN) radios from Sev1Tec, one of the military’s many industry partners.
Held at Sev1Tech’s Augusta location Feb. 10-21, the training was the first of future collaborations that follow a “train the trainer” model.
By teaming up with industry partners such as Sev1Tec, signal Soldiers are equipped with the latest in technology and take the skills they learned back to their classrooms.
“They will train each other so when the equipment is implemented in the 25U course, our instructors will be more prepared to educate the Soldiers on the equipment,” explained Terry Moore, chief of Satellite Communications and Network Communications Branch, Training and Education Development Directorate, U.S. Army Signal School.
The 10-day course is a combination of classroom instruction and practical exercises.
Chris Young, Training Development team lead for Sev1Tec, said they “are fortunate to have the resources – everything from personnel support to equipment and everything in-between.”
Like many employed by industry partners, Young retired from the military and wanted to continue serving in some capacity. A former radio operator-maintainer (25C) and later telecommunications operations chief (25W), he knows firsthand how quickly technology changes and understands the value in equipping today’s trainers with what they need to execute their mission. And the support doesn’t stop after Soldiers complete the training.
“Soldiers can call in if they have an issue out in the field with their radio, they can call … regardless of where they are in the world,” said Lawanda Boswell, Project Manager Tactical Radios Help Desk lead and former information technology specialist (25B). Boswell, who retired from the Army last year, said if she is unable to personally assist when called, she will seek someone who can. Soldiers also have access to a website equipped with product support, tutorials, and other resources.
“Our work with the [Signal School] is to make sure that they are integrating these new tactical radios into their curriculum and to ensure that their instructors are trained in order to execute properly,” Young said.
“As the Army rapidly and iteratively fields the latest technologies across the force, we need to maintain pace and currency in order to best prepare the signal Soldier to provide critical communications capabilities to their command,” said the 43rd Chief of Signal and U.S. Army Signal School Commandant, Col. Julia Donley. “Having Sev1Tec update us on ITN equipment really brings the instructors here at the schoolhouse up to speed with some of the latest C2Fix capabilities.”
Future iterations of ITN training will cover Mobile User Objective System (May 27-29), Field Level Maintenance (Aug. 4-8), and Ruggedized Applications Platform-Tactical Radios /Atom (Aug. 11-22).
Sev1Tech has 11 locations throughout the continental United States and provides services to the military worldwide.
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