"Cable Dawgs": Aviano's best-kept secret

by Senior Airman Briana Jones
31st Fighter Wing Public Affairs

11/26/2013 - AVIANO AIR BASE, Italy -- To ensure mission success, Airmen must be able to communicate with each other at all times. The cable and antenna shop guarantees communication flows freely from squadron to squadron, flight to flight and Airman to Airman.

Hidden in a back shop behind the Alpine Golf Course, these Airmen are a well-kept secret. You will not find them sitting behind their desks, but rather climbing into manholes.

Known as "Cable Dawgs," cable and antenna maintainers are different than the typical 31st Communications Squadron Airmen. They monitor and analyze performance of buried and aerial cable and antenna networks in support of everyday communications, surveillance systems, weapons storage security and even NATO operations.

While some CS Airmen fix computers or phone issues, reset passwords and unblock websites, "Cable Dawgs" spend their day climbing into multiple man holes to install and maintain communication lines below and at ground level. They are responsible for maintaining the communication infrastructure for networking, telephones.

"People tend to confuse us with the other Airmen in our squadron and with the 31st Civil Engineer Squadron Airmen, mostly because of the equipment that we use," said Staff Sgt. Scott Gingrich 31st Communications Squadron cable maintenance supervisor. "We do not deal with network issues. We install cable from building to building - basically, laying down the groundwork for the 31st CS Airmen."

The most common job "Cable Dawgs" perform is running local area network cable through buildings and fiber optic repair, which can take up to a week to complete.

"If these Airmen and their job did not exist, we would have no way to communicate within the base or to anyone outside the base," said 2nd Lt. Chase Luedeke, 31st CS deputy flight commander. "These Airmen are not afraid to get down and dirty, and we wouldn't be able to get our communications back up without them."

The five Airmen shop maintains more than 20,000 miles of cable fiber throughout the base connecting Team Aviano to 14 geographically-separated units.

"Our work would be contracted out if we did not exist wasting time and a lot of money, therefore we are essential," said Senior Airman Kyle Ragan, 31st CS cable systems journeyman. "If we did not exist either would phone or internet connections. Everything on base is connected through some sort of physical cabling."

Recently, these Airmen helped the Italian Air Force form a new communication infrastructure system. The project helped save $20 million in contracting costs and was completed in just six months instead of the estimated five years.

The specialized skills of "Cable Dawgs" continue to be an essential part of not only Team Aviano's mission, but Air Force operations worldwide.

"Their job ensures that the rest of us can do what we need to do to complete the mission, each and every day," said Luedeke.