YOKOTA AIR BASE, Japan -- Airmen from the 374th Communications Squadron traveled to Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni to conduct an expeditionary communications exercise, Adamantium Shield II, Aug. 19-23.
Adamantium Shield II is the second exercise in a three-part series. After conducting the first exercise at U.S. Army Camp Zama last month, 374th CS Airmen traveled to MCAS Iwakuni to hone the communication skills necessary to support command and control in austere locations, for tactical aircraft generation.
“Adamantium Shield is a unit level exercise where we are practicing our expeditionary communications readiness,” said Lt. Col. Steven Lee, 374th CS commander. “This exercise is not only just about secure communications capabilities, it’s also about practicing our logistics and readiness of personnel, ensuring they’re ready to deploy at a moment’s notice.”
Both Tech Sgt Marcus Slocum, 374th CS expeditionary communications work center section chief, and Senior Airman Kim Yabut, 374th CS XCOMM specialist, carried out all logistics coordination for all equipment going from Yokota to MCAS Iwakuni and back.
Each day of the week-long exercise, Senior Airman Nigél Jessamy, 374th CS network infrastructure technician, and Airman 1st Class Syrus Terwilliger, 374th CS radio operations technician, routinely assembled their communication fly-away kits, consisting of satellite communication terminals and networking systems, to establish contact with Yokota from over 500 miles away. Additionally, they identified, troubleshooted, and resolved any satellite or network issues that took place during the extent of the exercise.
“It’s important that our Airmen get more repetition, so that when real world situations do come up, they are ready to go,” said Slocum. “We know our Airmen are going to know how to get the equipment up and run it. But, when a problem comes up and they’re under pressure, we need them to be able to problem solve and figure it out quickly.”
The exercise concluded with a visit from Lee, who toured the worksite, inspected the equipment, and successfully placed satellite calls back to Yokota – demonstrating the effective work of Terwilliger and Jessamy.
“It’s important that we do these exercises to have confidence in our capabilities to perform, but to also enhance the readiness mindset within the units across all functional areas,” said Lee. “The work of these amazing Airmen is something to be highlighted. Part of our job here is to practice our expeditionary communications, so if the time comes for any agile combat employment or deployment operations within the Indo-Pacific–we can say that we are ready.”
The third installment of Adamantium Shield is scheduled to occur in the following months, employing the use of multiple CFK’s from varying locations around Yokota.
“It’s an incredible opportunity to come out here and be part of an exercise like this,” said Terwilliger. “Being able to spend a week building our skills in setting up the equipment and in troubleshooting, it brings us together. We’re able to show what the 374th CS is capable of.”