35th signal deploys off Puerto Rico for first time in years

Army Communicator, Fall, 2003 by Ryan Matson, Marimer Navarette

FORT GORDON, Ga. -- In an age of global communications, the more languages a person knows, the better and faster the message may be relayed and understood.

This is especially true for a unit like the 35th Signal Battalion, based at Fort Alan, Puerto Rico, whose soldiers' first language is primarily Spanish. However, these soldiers perform all their military communications in English.

"We are professional enough to know when to distinguish when and where we can speak Spanish and when to conduct business in the U.S. Army official language, which is English," said 1LT Juan Gerardo Marin, Company A commander. "We have no problem with that. When we are among ourselves, if it is necessary, we speak Spanish; if not, we just speak English,"

Language appeared to be no barrier to several individual 35th Signal soldiers who, since December 2002, excelled as honor graduates in the 31L course, and as two distinguished honor graduates in the 74B course.

But the unit as a whole had not deployed from their island to the mainland United States to test their skills in nearly a decade and a half. That changed in June 2003 when the unit "stormed" the beaches at the port of Charleston, S.C., and then 190 of its soldiers convoyed to Fort Gordon to support the "Golden Medic '03" exercise. About 55 soldiers provided communication support at Fort Dix, N.J., and Fort Meade, Md.

The 35th Signal Battalion, part of the larger, multi-state Grecian Firebolt '03 exercise, provided secure and flexible communications for joint, interagency and potentially multi-national commanders through the use of reliable, high-quality voice-and-data communications for more than 6,000 customers.

"It was a challenge," said CSM Denis Cintron, 35th Signal Battalion. "We hadn't been deployed as a unit from Puerto Rico for 14 years. (But), it was outstanding training, and we really wanted to do it."

"We were selected because we were readily available and motivated to participate in the exercise," said LTC Juan Rosa, 35th Signal Battalion commander. "It was a tremendous learning process for us. We have many soldiers in the unit who are just getting back from school for information systems operators/analysts, and this exercise gave them the chance to use their training in action."

The unit established, for the first time, both voice and data communications, including non secure internet protocol router and secure internet protocol router and video teleconferencing capabilities. The unit also created its own data packs, which allowed NIPRNET capabilities.

"In the past we just concentrated on doing voice communications," Rosa said.

"There were a lot of adjustments that had to be made," said CPT Shari Barfield, Company C commander, 35th Signal Battalion. "When you train within the battalion, you don't have to adjust that much. This time we had to. It was great to interact with different units and see what our communications can do in the real world.

The 7th Transport Group from Fort Eustis, Va., aided in the unit's deployment. LTC Rosa said 17 pieces of equipment essential to accomplishing the mission were transported, including two 39D digital communication switches.

For the small 35th Signal contingent at Fort Dix, N.J., despite the weather was very different from what they were used to on the island, the Puerto Rican soldiers seem to acclimate very quickly.

"When we got off of the airplane, on Saturday, the temperature was near 50 degrees. Compared to 80 in Puerto Rico, it was a little bit colder than we were used to; but with the proper attire, you can handle any type of weather," said 1LT Marin.

The 49 soldiers were responsible for five communication systems, and for laying cables and wiring at Fort Dix for GF '03.

According to MAJ Rafael Serrano, the 35th Signal Battalion conducts many operations in the Puerto Rico area. It has also deployed for training in Central and South America as part of humanitarian mission and peace keeping operations of the Southern Command, in places like in Honduras, Guatemala, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Panama, Venezuela, Colombia and Mexico Serrano said.

Even with such extensive overseas experience, though, this year's annual training was different because the 35th Signal trained with new equipment.

"We still have (in Puerto Rico) the older version of the system that we are operating here," 1LT Marin said. "Yes, this equipment is a little bit different than the type we have, but overall, if our soldiers are MOS (military occupational specialty) qualified, they know what to do. It will take us more time to get started, but we will do it,"

1LT Marin explained that the integration for training at Fort Dix between the Army Reserve's 35th Puerto Rico and the Delaware National Guard's 261st Signal Brigade for this exercise was flawless.

"We received plenty of support from the 261st and I am pleased we have received most of the equipment that we needed. Of course, every time you are going to perform a mission like this, you will have some items that need to be handled, but the treatment we have received has been outstanding," 1LT Marin said.