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(U) Working at Prince Sultan Air Base, SA
FROM:
IA Intern
Run Date: 12/17/2003
(S//SI) The call went out shortly after 9/11 for a military O2/O3 to
deploy to the CENTCOM Area of Operations (AO) to support the
campaign in Afghanistan (Operation Enduring Freedom - OEF) as
well as continuing support of Operation Southern Watch (OSW) as
Chief of the Cryptologic Services Group (CSG) CENTCOM (Fwd).
Having just left active-duty as a US Army Captain a couple of
months prior, I hesitantly inquired with the NIST office if they
would consider re-activating me for this deployment. After a day or
two of realizing the amount of paperwork that would require, the
NIST folks decided that they would just send me in my civilian
capacity, and I was on a plane to Saudi Arabia before the ink on my
new passport was dry.
(S) The shades were drawn, the lights were out, and the transport
plane hit the tarmac hard in the middle of the Arabian night. The
cargo door slid open revealing a desolate dune-capped landscape
lined with rows of razor wire and guard towers. The airfield itself
was enormous - more than capable of handling the F-16 fighters,
French Mirages, British Tornados, and RC-135 and U-2 surveillance
aircraft that lay clustered under makeshift hangars. It was from
here that the US and her NATO allies prosecuted OSW - the
oversight and compliance enforcement of keeping Saddam's
military in check.
Sunrise at the compound
(S) Feeling a bit like Jack Ryan (a'la Tom Clancy's "Clear and
Present Danger") I was given access to an enormous white
armored Suburban in which to transport myself and my fellow CSG
members the 15 miles to-and-from our secure living compound to
the airfield. Now, having spent more than 8 years in the Army
sleeping in the woods, I was fully prepared to spend the next 4
months in sub-standard living conditions, working as I was on the
"front line" of the Global War on Terrorism. This, however, was an
Air Force Base, and I'm embarrassed to say that it actually had a
pool ! I was housed in an air-conditioned dorm room directly
across from the Burger King and beside the movie house. Well, the
BK was a trailer, and the movie house was a giant tent, but still this was certainly not the hardship of Afghanistan.
Combined Forces Compound Entrance
(S) But then, it wasn't Club Med either. Prince Sultan Air Base was
born from the tragedy of the Khobar Towers bombing in Dharan in
1996 that killed 19 American servicemen. Terrorism, then as now,
was a definite reality in Saudi Arabia, and the security there was
more stringent than any I'd ever seen in my prior military
deployments. Despite the tremendous security efforts, Saudi forces
found a spent SA-7 launcher within the airbase perimeter while I
SERIES:
(U//FOUO) IA Interns
Abroad
1. Coming Soon: IA
Interns Abroad
2. 3 1/2 Months in
Qatar: Supporting
CENTCOM
3. 3 1/2 Months in
Qatar: Outside of
Work
4. Deployed to
Afghanistan
5. Camp Virginia to
Camp Victory: In
Kuwait
6. Camp Virginia to
Camp Victory: Into
Baghdad
7. NISTing in Kabul and
Baghdad - Part One
8. NISTing in Kabul and
Baghdad - Part Two
9. Working at Prince
Sultan Air Base, SA
10. Deployment
Sketches - Part 1
11. Deployment
Sketches - Part 2
12. Dispatch from CSG
Baghdad
was there, indicating that someone had recently infiltrated the post
and launched a surface-to-air missile at a coalition aircraft during
their vulnerable takeoff or landing profile. Luckily, the missile
missed its mark.
Me at my workplace, the JIC
(TS//SI//REL) The day-to-day work in the CSG was fascinating,
and I never knew what was going to happen next. Although the
watch on Iraq was rather low-key compared to the action of
Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) a year later, this was during the
initial stages of OEF, and I had the opportunity to help manage
SIGINT operations for such notable Afghanistan operations as
Operation Anaconda. One particularly noteworthy graveyard shift
found me alone in the CSG when the call came in that an MC-130
Special Operations aircraft had crashed near an Afghan village, and
I had to coordinate the national and tactical cryptologic support
through the Combined Air Operations Center to facilitate the
recovery of the survivors before Taliban forces could threaten the
crash site. Other instances had me putting to use my prior training
as an Army Psychological Operations (PSYOP) Officer in
coordinating SIGINT support to psychological operations in
Southern Iraq, encouraging Iraqi forces not to fire on coalition
aircraft. I even had the opportunity to fly on the RC-135 "Rivet
Joint" COMINT/ELINT collection aircraft as it ferreted out Iraqi
communications along the Saudi border. It was one heck of an
intern tour!
(U//FOUO) My recommendation: go to the NIST webpage now and
volunteer for a deployment. You won't be disappointed, and you
certainly won't be bored!
"(U//FOUO) SIDtoday articles may not be republished or reposted outside NSANet
without the consent of S0121 (DL sid comms)."
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DERIVED FROM: NSA/CSSM 1-52, DATED 08 JAN 2007 DECLASSIFY ON: 20320108