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Spec ops course pushes communications skills

CAMP DAVIS, N.C. — Beyond a thick wall of pine trees concealing this old Army camp from a well-traveled coastal highway, spec-ops Marines listened to radio chatter and typed on small laptops near antennas no bigger than umbrellas.

These Marines were not testing the communications equipment on a sweltering July 29 morning. They were being evaluated on how well they managed the cutting-edge technology at their fingertips, used throughout the Special Operations Forces communications field.

The Marines were tested on how well they used a wide range of communications equipment, from VHF and UHF radios, to satellite and data communications in an exercise that concluded a nine-week course developed by Marine Corps Forces Special Operations Command.

The July 31 graduation of these Marines marked the second round of MarSOC’s Network Operators Course, a pilot program created from a variety of communications courses taught in U.S. Special Operations Command and the Corps’ communications school.

Today’s warfare is diverse, driving the need for high-bandwidth, long-range, deployable communications. For special operators, who usually work in some of the most austere environments and who may have no more than a single communicator in a team, having access to cutting-edge technology is key to a mission.

Marines who take the course learn to become network operators, using a combination of radios, secure and nonsecure phones and computers.

“We’re not making the force reconnaissance communicator that everyone was familiar with in the 1990s,” said Lt. Col. Fred Hopewell, MarSOC’s deputy assistant chief of communications.

When students, such as field radio operators and tactical data network specialists, enter the course, they’ve usually been exposed to only about 30 percent of the equipment they learn to use, said Master Sgt. Ron Holmes, radio chief and course coordinator. And the Marines are learning what each piece of equipment is capable of — something MarSOC will not discuss for operational security reasons.

Already, four Marines out of the 20 or so who graduated from the course in mid-January are on operational teams that have deployed at least twice.

The course begins as if the Marines are part of a spec-ops team, teaching them from the get-go how to prepare for a deployment.

“[It’s] amazing,” said Sgt. Marc Garcia, who stood in a small tent that served as the basic operations center during the students’ final exercise July 29. “We’re years ahead of anybody else in our field.”

Garcia, who made the cut into MarSOC about a year ago, urges other Marines in the communications field to spend a tour in Marine special operations.

Several yards away in the thick brush, Sgt. Dustin Wilkes stood over his team of Marines crouched and lying on the ground, working with various communications equipment. The team of five men operated equipment such as the Broadband Global Area Network, or BGAN, a satellite system, and SOF Deployable Node Lite, a system made up of a high-speed satellite terminal, laptop and encryption device.

Wilkes, who’s been in MarSOC since April, said he had never seen some of the equipment he’s now trained to operate during his eight years in the Corps.

“We’re talking a lot of capabilities,” he said. “I definitely haven’t had the opportunity to go through courses like this before.”

Cpl. Matthew Drayer, a radio technician, said his team spent just minutes setting up communications equipment, which fitted neatly into their rucksacks.

“Coming in here as a technician … this has been a whole new experience for me,” he said. “I wouldn’t have it any other way.”