European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - June 10, 1991, Darmstadt, Hesse Monday june 10, 1991 the stars and stripes a Page 3a Success keeping in by Joseph Owen staff writer silo i Turkey a during three months in saudi Arabia and Kuwait army pvt. 1 Dennis j. Dougherty spent most of his waking hours in a windowless Box 6-feet wide 7-Fcet Long and so Short most adults can to stand up in it. A several weeks ago the 19-year-old Chicago native finally got to return to Ett Lingen Germany where he is assigned to co a 44th signal in. But the reprieve Only lasted 10 Days. Now Dougherty is Back in a Box in Southwest Asia Tor. 12 hours a Day operating a Small Extension Node switch a Generator powered switchboard that ties As Many As 40 Field telephones into the tactical phone network 7th signal brigade operates for operation provide comforts combined task Force. The bristle haired soft spoken Dougherty one of the few soldiers wearing the chocolate clip desert camouflage uniform Here is part of a three member team operating the Node switch from the air conditioned Box on the Back of a highly Mobile multipurpose wheeled vehicle or hmm we in silo i. Sometimes he works Days and gets meal Breaks sometimes he has the night shift. A nights i do 12 straight hours of sitting in Here trying not to fall asleep a he said. A supposedly there a a team coming to replace us next week but in Kuwait we were told so Many different things i can to be a a a a. / a a / Dougherty a Job is to make sure those 40 phones retain Access to the outside world through trunk lines. A a a we basically need to be running 24 hour seven Days a week. When it All hits the fan and the trunks Are out that s when you feel the heat a Dougherty said. A a the heat of inoperative communications lines appears in the form of magnetic red dots on a display Board in the tent door. That is where the task forces communications systems control Center is located. A multicoloured diagram on the Board identifies the satellite tropospheric and Ultra High frequency line of sight radio links that allow commanders to Call their Bosses in Europe or to Call across the Street to get a tire replaced. Green dots mean the lines Are working yellow Means there Are problems. Red Means the whole line is Down. A there s been some Days when there slots of red up Here but on the whole it s working Well a said it. Col. Thomas e. German commander of the 72nd signal in of Karlsruhe Germany jabbing at the diagram with a collapsible Metal Pointer. Its supposed to work Well of course but the fact that a Patchwork quilt of units from various service branches operates. It makes it a Challenge. Add the requirement to offer Telephone Tel fax computer file transfers electronic mail and Mars Calls services All at once some of it on top Security lines and the task becomes daunting. And when one considers How often the network needs to be rearranged to match changes in operation provide Comfort deployments its a wonder it works at All. The system even provides communications services for some of the British French italian and Spanish forces deployed to Iraq and Turkey. A seventh signal brigade could have done this whole by themselves a German said referring to his battalions Parent unit a but three of four battalions deployed to saudi Arabia and their equipment Isnit Back so instead the combined task Force hits pasted the network together using the brigades Headquarters germans battalion the 167th signal co of Vicenza Italy the 59th of Collano Italy the 160th signal brigade of Karlsruhe Germany the 2nd and 7th signal brigades of Mannheim Germany the Berlin brigade and other 5th signal come units. Ger Man ii so employs a team of marines and several air Force elements. A alone at Diyarbakir Turkey members of five different air Force units Are working on the communications network said air Force capt. Anthony Paulson a satellite communications program manager normally assigned to he . Air forces in Europe at Ramstein a Germany. The suddenness of the deployment and the Speed with which it changed shape at first created headaches for the people trying to keep the system working. When it started German said a we were having a hard time catching up with the a hungry customers. We were competing for the aircraft to be Able to provide the in Ciurlik Diyarbakir and silo i Turkey were the three original communications hubs but Diyarbakir became less critical alter combined task Force troops repaired a runway at Sirsen Iraq and most refugee Relief supplies began to arrive there instead. So the brigade had to turn Sirsen into one of its hubs. Several More were set up at other locations in Iraq and Turkey. F a a a a. More shifts arc in the works As operation provide Comfort winds Down and . Troops prepare to return Home it the communications team already has positioned another Node switch like Dougherty sat the port of Iskenderun Turkey where the . Military expects to ship out a lot of its equipment. Also four radio stations Are being set up and staffed by marines on the truck Convoy route Between Iskenderun on the Medit Teranen sea and silo i far Inland near the iraqi Border. V even the communications systems control Center itself has moved twice. Located first at in Ciurlik it has been at Zakhoo Iraq during most of the deployment. It moved thursday to silo i because most redeploying units will Check in there. When the operation moves into its final stage the Center will return to cheer As last amp closes Domiuk Iraq apr the closing of the last kurdish refugee Camp on the turkish iraqi Border last week should have been cause for Celebration. But there were few cheers in a Kurca Camp in the forbidding mountains along the Frontier. A they know they re on their own now a said . Marine maj. Rick Raf Tery. A this Means we re heading since operation provide Comfort began in Early april Allied troops have helped about 450,000 kurdish refugees return to Iraq from Turkey. Only about 33,000 kurd Are in two Camps in the Allied a Security zone in Northern Iraq. An additional 13,000 remain in Turkey refusing to return. A the efficiency the rapidity the sheer numbers of people moved is almost miraculous a. Said Pierre Francois Pirlot head of the United nations High commission for refugees office in the Northern iraqi City of Dozhuk. He said the Agency initially thought the Job would last seven months the allies completed it in seven weeks. But the kurdish problem remains. Split mainly Between four nations a Turkey Iraq Iran and Syria a and often sub divided into warring dans the estimated 25 million kurd Are no closer to winning a Homeland. While the kurd who fled to Turkey after a failed uprising in March have nearly All gone Home close to 1 million of iraqis 3-5 million kurd remain in squalor in Iran where they sought Refuge. Only 300,000 have returned to Iraq. General order prevails in the Allied occupied Security zone a 3,600-Square-mile chunk of Northern Iraq but banditry and disease Are Rife in the guerrilla controlled kurdish area to the East an area the is amps Joseph Owen sgt. Stephen Brown of the 21st special operations so Raf Ben Waters watches the Northern iraqi landscape below his helicopter. Kurd Call a free still kurd in the Security zone and kurdish run Iraq Are Savouring their first taste of Freedom in years. They Are returning to villages gutted several years ago by Saddam Hussein a army. The kurd View the . And Allied troops who created the a Security zone As their Savior and have petitioned the allies to stay on to supervise a demilitarized zone. But As . Army col. Dick Naab says a a that a just not our . Troops who participated in Aid work should All be Home or heading that Way by mid june. Combat expected to stay at least until August. About half the 21,000 soldiers and civilians from 12 nations Are americans. . Military intelligence officers and news reports say Saddam a forces Are Busy smashing the remnants of the shiite rebellion in Southern Iraq. A then we think hell turn his attention to the North a said Raftery
