Reserve intel squadron brings Total Force Integration concept to Hickam

by Capt. Joe Simms
940th Wing

9/5/2013 - JOINT BASE PEARL HARBOR-HICKAM, Hawaii -- Ten communications specialists from the 50th Intelligence Squadron, Beale Air Force Base, Calif., completed two weeks of annual training at Distributed Ground Station 5, Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii, Aug. 17-31.

The arrival of the reserve DGS to work alongside an active duty squadron marked the culmination of several months of coordination between the 50 IS and the 792nd Intelligence Support Squadron, JB Pearl Harbor-Hickam.

"The 792nd ISS currently has no reserve or Guard associations, so the opportunity to see the Air Force's Total Force Integration concept in action is a first for many of our airmen," said Capt. Brandon Kalski, 792nd ISS Operations Flight commander. " It has been a great opportunity to leverage the experience our reserve brethren bring to the table."

The 50th IS and 792nd ISS support two of the five distributed ground stations throughout the world that make up the Distributed Common Ground System weapons system. DGSs are also located at Osan Air Base, Republic of Korea, Joint Base Langley-Eustis, Va., and Ramstein Air Base, Germany.

Each DGS is comprised of intel analysts and communications specialists who process multiple forms of intelligence gathered from manned and unmanned reconnaissance platforms such as the U-2 Dragonlady and the RQ-4 Global Hawk remotely piloted aircraft.

The task of providing the infrastructure needed to process the vast amount of intelligence gathered by these platforms falls on Airmen with different backgrounds and fields of expertise.

"At DGS-2 (Beale AFB), we have full-time reservists embedded with the active duty. There are also civilian contractors at the DGS who are able to bring another perspective that the military members may not have," said Tech. Sgt. Robert Bower, 50th IS Mission Systems supervisor.

"Finally, our traditional reservists are also able to draw upon their experience from their civilian jobs in the communications industry," he continued. "As the model for Total Force Integration, we're able to bring all three of those domains to the table when we travel to another DGS."

The priorities for the 50th on this trip were to augment their regular Air Force counterparts and prepare the 792nd for their consolidated unit inspection later this year.