Petty Officer Apollo Corpuz accesses Internet services in the foreground while Chief Petty Officer Christopher Hudson, right, supervises Petty Officer Victoria Schuchart in the operations of the Joint Mobile Ashore Support Terminal's mobile communications tent during Cobra Gold exercises in Utapao, Thailand. The unit, which is a self-contained mobile command center, gives a Navy commander almost all of the communication tools he may need while he is ashore. It is able to provide field troops or commanders with radios, classified and unclassified computer networks, and secure video teleconferencing.
Isle unit gives
mobile supportThe Navy's land-based JMAST
Pacific team provides command
and communications
A land-based Navy unit at Pearl Harbor grew out of the 1991 Gulf War because ship commanders had to communicate ashore.
"That is when Navy commanders had to go ashore for briefings and meetings," said Chief Petty Officer Iwalani Gutierrez, who heads the 16-member Joint Mobile Ashore Support Terminal Pacific.
"They had to go back and forth to their ship for information updates between meetings."
Gutierrez said the 9/11 attacks and the ongoing war on terrorism accelerated the development of these units. The Pearl Harbor unit, one of four in the Navy system, went into operation in December 2002. Their mission is to provide forces in the Pacific and Asia under Pacific Fleet boss Adm. Walter Doran command, control, communications, computers and intelligence support.
The unit, which is a self-contained mobile command center, gives a Navy commander almost all of the communication and intelligence tools he may need while he is ashore. It is able to provide field troops or commanders with radios, classified and unclassified computer networks, DSN military phones and secure video teleconferencing.
"It's a miniature version of the command suite he has at sea," Gutierrez said. "We have packed in transit cases computers and other communications gear along with heating, ventilation, air-conditioning units, tents, wiring and other equipment."
Gutierrez added, "Our biggest asset is the satellite access that provides Navy commanders with broadband communications links."
That breaks down to 40,000 pounds of equipment worth more than $4 million, ranging from 4,000-pound generators to laptop computers.
"Normally we use military airlift, such as the C-5 jet transport," Gutierrez said.
However, earlier this year, because much of the country's military transportation was involved in the Afghan or Iraqi wars, the communications unit had to turn to the Army and its HSV X-1 Joint Venture -- an Army high-speed vehicle -- to transport its equipment to Utapao in Thailand for last month's Cobra Gold training exercise.
The Joint Venture's successor, the HSV-2, homeported in Ingleside, Texas, is a modified commercial craft, similar to high-speed ferries, with a flight deck and hangar for two H-60 helicopters, a stern vehicle ramp capable of supporting an M-1 Abrams tank, berthing space for more than 40 crew members, communications for a wide range of missions, and a crane capable of launch and recovery of small boats and unmanned vehicles up to 26,000 pounds.
The 16-person unit -- all enlisted sailors -- must be ready to deploy within 24 hours with prior alert notification. Once the unit receives word of deployment, they work with local military and police forces in the area to which they are deploying to arrange support.
"We always in ready, standby, for the fleet for any type of contingencies," Gutierrez said. "We're generally first in and the last ones out. Also, since we're such a small unit, we've cross-trained everyone in the unit. We have to be flexible."
The team is made up mainly of computer specialists, electronics technicians and operations specialists.
Gutierrez said that their expertise are in high demand, with some of the unit members deployed two-thirds of the year.
Last October, the unit was sent to Bangkok to provide communication needs for the security forces that protected President Bush at the Asian-Pacific Economic Conference in Bangkok.
"In the past fiscal year, we undertook four overseas deployments, which usually lasted about a month," Gutierrez added.
The Pearl Harbor unit is one of four in the Navy whose headquarters, Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command, is in Charleston, S.C.
The other three are in Atlantic Fleet in Virginia, Naval Forces Europe in Italy and U.S. Naval Forces Central Command. Gutierrez said the Naval Forces Central Command unit recently began full-time operations in Bahrain to support the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.
