I can't open my email!

This entry is about some of the most loved and hated guys in the Corps.  We all love it when the phone is working, the email is connected, and the internet pops up in a blink of the eye.  Our Communication Marines (for those of you that do not have to wear the desert digital leisure suit, these are our "IT" guys) work around the clock to keep our electrons flowing.  When the email is working, we love them!  When the system is down... you guessed it!  Nonetheless, without them, we could not bring you information through VOX.  Pfc. Brian Jones spent a day with the Gods of Wire.

FALLUJAH, Iraq—Great military leaders have employed messengers to send word at relative high speeds since ancient times to administrate command of their warriors on the front and stay in contact with their homelands they left behind. We’ve came along way since the messenger on foot and Samuel F.B. Morse’s telegraph with a rapid advancement in information and communication technologies and their increasing advantages. It still holds true today as it did in the past that communication is vital in warfare.

The Marines with Data Section, Communication Platoon, Headquarters Company with Regimental Combat Team 6, stationed at Camp Fallujah, Iraq, keep the communications functioning for mission necessity and to keep Marines in touch with the outside world.

Instructions over the phone

“The Marine Corps is so data inclusive now that it’s almost like you can’t communicate without data now,”

said Staff Sgt. David J. Ault, the data staff noncommissioned officer. “Computers go down and Marines can’t communicate.”

Help is spread thin with 12 Marines on the data section team to support over 3,000 users on the network, leaving them with an endless list of tasks and functions to execute to ultimately support all operations. There are multiple sites off camp alone that require their support to build and maintain networks at outposts in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom missions.

“They go well above the normal daily tasks of a normal corporation that would have a lot more people to support a lot less users,” Ault said. “These guys do it day in and day out working 12-hour shifts and run all activity on the data network for RCT-6 and below. This is an amazing thing to me.”

Supporting the command operations center and all other immediate action groups that fall beneath the regiment are the priorities of the data section.

Data tasks include: installations, security control, software updates, scanning for network vulnerabilities, mailbox accounts, internet accounts, desktop support, information assurance, maintenance, running the help desk, etc… This is after they initially laid miles of wires and cables to practically build the network from the ground up for the regiment to utilize.

A small jungle of wires

“A lot of changes, a lot of projects happened,” recalled 24-year-old Sgt. Daniel E. Follis, a data chief assistant, from Waco, Texas. “Our guys rewired the whole base that belonged to RCT-6 and they did a very outstanding job on that. We organized lines all over the place and we found lines that weren’t being used that were a security issue so our guys pulled up all the lines and replaced them with new lines.”

“You can talk (bad) about us, but you can’t talk without us,” jokingly said Follis. “We try to keep users happy as best as we can to keep the mission complete, keep the mission going. With a network filled with data you will always have bumps in the roads, but this team we have here will always find a way to defeat it and always find a way to keep going.”

“It is a very, very busy, nonstop business, because you always have users that want to add things to the network,” Follis explained. “The network always changes.”

There is always some new software, new anti-virus, new computer coming out to improve communication technologies requiring an ongoing training regime for these Marines. It’s a continuous process of increasing their knowledge and skills.

“It’s always advancing and the thing with us data guys is we have to advance with it,” Follis said.

Follis arrived here as part of an advance party to train with RCT-5. He became the helpdesk supervisor for RCT-5 and RCT-6 during their transition of authority. During the transaction RCT-5 took home a lot of their equipment and computers and those had to be replaced and installed.

“It was nonstop; phones ringing off the hook, people having issues, people logging onto the network for the first time not quite understanding how the computer operates yet or understanding how the network flows,” Follis remembered. “At that time it was very busy, nonstop working to take care of issues to get things ready.”

After setting up the networking system, threats of computer intrusion on

A few keystrokes and email works again

both small and large scales become imminent. The data section continuously works diligently at providing protective measures for information security to protect against cyber electronic attacks and counter information theft.

Follis described the improvement he has seen since he first deployed to Iraq with RCT-8 in 2005.

“The network was a lot slower then and it wasn’t as secure as it is now,” he said. “There are many websites that people can’t get to now, which is a good thing. People complain they can’t get onto MySpace or Hotmail, they have to realize how much bandwidth that is taking and how much viruses push through…there’s a lot more security in place and it makes it a lot faster and cleaner.”

Like most businesses there’s a need for customer relations to smooth the edges.

“Be patient,” Ault wanted to say to users. “A lot of times people call and they think that their problem is the biggest problem in the world, but they don’t realize that we have over 3,000 users on our network. On any given day I have two guys on the helpdesk to support 3,000 users. If the people understand they are not the only people on the network that makes a big difference for us.”

“I don’t want to say it’s a thankless job but they’re always grateful for us whenever we do fix their stuff, but at the same time no one thinks about us until all of a sudden that email is not working,” said Ault with a grin.