CAMP FUJI, Japan -- Communication between units is a mandatory asset in peacetime as well as combat, but when the radios do not work other means of communication must be established for mission accomplishment.
Marines from Marine Wing Support Squadron 171, training in Camp Fuji, Japan, found out first hand what it was like to lose the ability to coordinate with other MWSS-171 detachments during Exercise Foal Eagle Fuji.
"Our role was to set up communications with the '171 Marines in Korea as well as the remaining Marines in Iwakuni," said Staff Sgt. Ariel Harper, MWSS-171 motor transportation gunnery sergeant and acting first sergeant during the exercisse. "We wanted to transmit data and information back to both detachments, but we ran into problems."
The problems Harper was referring to was the high frequency gear, which has been a big problem for quite a few years, said Sgt. Timothy Barrett, a '171 field wireman.
"The problem with the high frequency gear is a combination of being old and poorly maintained," said Barret.
Although this setback caused an array of problems for the unit, the Marines put their collective heads together and implemented a counter strike to their communication quarrels.
The term commonly used in this sort of situation is called "jury-rigging" and Lance Cpl. Justin Schenck, MWSS-171 organizational communications repairman, was the man for the job.
Schenck constructed a field expedient antenna out of a 90-foot piece of wire suspended between two antennae masts and a coaxial cable hooked up to a PRC-104 radio.
The equipment in Korea had already been set up so once the Fuji detachment arrived, all they had to do was push into the field and start doing radio checks and troubleshooting any problems they may have had.
"Where we were [in the field], it made it hard to troubleshoot, because there was no communication to the Marines in Korea," said Barrett.
The only way to check and see what was happening with the Marines in Korea, was to call from a cellular phone back at Camp Fuji.
The reason that worked, and the high frequency radio did not, was because cellular phones use satellites to direct signals, where as the radio signals travel along the ground, and encounter obstructions along the way.
Taking into account the distance between Camp Fuji and Yechon Air Base, Korea, problems could be expected.
However, the training must go on.
"While we did land navigation, a couple of platoons took out radios, and we established communication from the base camp to the individual platoons," said Sgt. Asa Betancourt, MWSS-171 radio operator. "That went well because it was in the two to three mile radius. I am sure some of the Marines got a bit of communication knowledge just being around the equipment."
The feeling of failure arose in some of the Marines, but according to their acting first sergeant, there is nothing to be ashamed about.
"The Marines did an awesome job out there. The communication problem wasn't expected, but we were very happy it happened because it's better to happen out here in training rather than in the real thing. Now they know how to handle problems like this if they arise and that's why we do the training evolution," said Harper.