4 posts tagged “oif”
We knew that this time would arrive and while we are excited to return home, we must thank each and every one of you for your support over the past year. A very special "THANK YOU!!" to the guys and gals at VOX for assisting us during the initial stages and we definitely could not have done it without them! When we first started this blog, they understood the complications of our internet connectivity here and kept in touch with us to ensure that everything was running smooth.
We hope that this site brought some newsworthy information, but if you want to keep up with the news here in Fallujah, Regimental Combat Team 1 has started their own VOX blog. They have already posted a few articles and we encourage you to give them a look and once in a while, give them a shout.
We decided to post a picture of the crew that has brought you the Fightin' 6th blog.
Pfc. Brian Jones just returned from the city and brings us the State of Fallujah Address where city officials tell you about what has taken place over the past year to strengthen their home:
FALLUJAH, Iraq —City officials and leaders gathered at the newly developed Fallujah television station to deliver a live broadcast of the state of Fallujah address to the people recently.
Sheik Hamid Ahmed, the chairman of the Fallujah city council, and Col. Faisal Ismail Husayn, the chief of police, spoke on behalf of the city recounting their history and announcing the current state of affairs.
Both Ahmed and Husayn thanked the service members and commanding officers with Regimental Combat Team 6 and Multi National Force-West for their support in security, reconstruction efforts and taking interest in the future of the city.
“The real picture of Fallujah is what you see today,” said Ahmed, translated by an interpreter. “It is living in security and reconstruction because the leadership of the city was put in the hands of the good people.”
Currently, the local tribal sheik council and city muktars are diligently working in accordance with the mayor and city council elected by the citizens of Fallujah in guiding the city’s future as Coalition Forces remain in a supporting role as advisors and security.
“When we united the city council, the mayor and the muktars of the city, the situation of the city turned for the better,” said Husayn. “Everybody knows that the security situation in Fallujah before 2006 was killing in the streets, destruction and no one could say any righteous word anywhere. Today the situation is special, very secure and peaceful. That is not our own evaluation, but it is the citizens of Fallujah who have evaluated the situation and have told us the status of the city.”
Husayn said that as security improved within the city all other efforts in rebuilding the city became a success and due to the city’s new leadership the city is moving in the direction of progress and stability.
All this was not possible without the help of the Coalition Forces and their help with the reconstruction efforts that work side by side with the security efforts in the city, said Husayn.
As security drastically improved the people of Fallujah received nearly 1,000 government jobs granted by the central government of Iraq, opened new and old businesses and have managed public services. Special efforts have also been made in supporting the students and youth of Fallujah, from school supplies to recreational sports.
The Fallujah Business Development Center has opened to manage reconstruction efforts for the district and is also used as the central foundation to inviting Arab and other investment companies into the city.
“Fallujah is ready for major investment,” said Ahmed. “From this place, we call on all the investors from the Arab nations and international nations to come and invest in the district of Fallujah.”
Ahmed attributed the reason for investing in the city is because of the city’s location on the Euphrates River that is an intersection for all the international roads and also, the city contains all the main ingredients necessary for development, such as human and construction resources and the availability of the experience and expertise.
Husayn addressed government representatives and brothers from the Arab nations around Iraq in his speech asking that they come and visit the city that sacrificed more than many other cities in Iraq and deserves that the people stand by its side and provide the services that it needs for support.
“I want them to come and see the reality of Fallujah today,” said Husayn. “They will see that Fallujah is very secure and that the citizens of Fallujah are very generous and very brave and are here to welcome anybody that comes to Fallujah.”
“All want the peace and are looking forward to building good relations and friendships with all the peoples’ nations,” said Ahmed. “We will turn the page of the past and will open a new page with the grace of God. We swore to ourselves that we will keep our city as a star shining among the stars of the other cities of Iraq.”
A team from NBC News recently embedded with us to obtain footage of Fallujah and the turnaround that has taken place with the people and the way of life. This segment aired last night and the possibility exists of another piece next week. The Marines of the "Darkhorse Battalion" hosted the crew and provided them a tour of the City of Mosques...
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.
“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 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
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.
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