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FORT HUACHUCA - Unmanned aerial vehicles are important to the Army and the U.S. Border Patrol.
That connection is being demonstrated at this Southern Arizona Army post and the Border Patrol's Naco Station as soldiers and agents work together on reconnaissance flights near the U.S.-Mexico border.
The Army green and Border Patrol green are doing a job to stop "TNT, trans-national threats," said Capt. Terry Parisher, commander of Company A, 224th Military Intelligence Battalion.
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Now that the Department of Defense's Joint Task Force North has expanded authority to provide more military support beyond anti-narcotic operations, units such as the Hunter unmanned aerial vehicle company from Georgia are being requested by the Department of Homeland Security.
As of Tuesday, soldiers from the Hunter Army Airfield company at Savannah, Ga., are credited with the apprehension of 54 illegal immigrants since their deployment in Arizona a few weeks ago.
Late Wednesday night and early Thursday, 25 illegal immigrants in two groups were apprehended after being spotted by the operators - soldiers and agents - during a night reconnaissance flight. The Army unit's total credit went up to 79 apprehensions.
Parisher said the deployment of his unit and the Hunter UAVs - there is no relation between the name of the aircraft and the Army airfield - provides more real-world training in case the unit that supports the 3rd Infantry Division is sent back to Iraq.
All of the company's intelligence soldiers were trained on Fort Huachuca.
Pfc. Ryne Hicks, an aerial vehicle operator, or UAV pilot, said that while the scenarios on the Arizona post are excellent, the training he is getting on this deployment is better.
"While at AIT (training soldiers get in fields they will be working), you really don't get that feel of real-world," the 20-year-old soldier said.
The training at Fort Huachuca is designed to make a soldier proficient in a skill. Once a soldier arrives at a unit, more specific training is done, he said
"You are learning more about the system in school (the Intelligence Center)," the private first class said.
Training at the home airfield in Georgia is limited because it is designed around generalized scenarios, Hicks said.
The trip back to Arizona and working with the Border Patrol is "more in depth," he said.
Hicks said the flight missions he has been involved with are making him a better unmanned aerial vehicle pilot. In the Army, enlisted soldiers usually pilot and operate the intelligence gathering equipment on the pilotless planes.
Many types of UAVs have been used in Iraq and Afghanistan. The company has deployed to Iraq in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom's initial attack.
Chief Warrant Officer Anne Thrush, who spent 10 years on Fort Huachuca, also was with the unit in Iraq.
The company's UAV technician, she started out her Army career as an enlisted soldier involved with pilotless planes, including the Hunter's predecessor called the Pioneer.
The Hunters proved their worth in Iraq, she said.
With newer soldiers, like Hicks, assigned to the company, there is a need for them to have real-world experiences before the call to deploy comes. At this time, the company is not on stand-by to return to a combat zone.
As a Hunter prepared to fly out of Libby Army Airfield on the post, Thrush said during the initial attacks and afterward when the combat started in Iraq, "we did a lot to help out."
Calling those in the Army UAV program in the early days of combat in Iraq "unsung heroes," she said that is why training that incorporates more reality is important to prepare new soldiers, and reinforce knowledge of older soldiers.
As the only female warrant officer in the Army's UAV program, Thrush hopes other women will seek warrant officer appointments in the UAV program
As the Hunter lifted off from Libby Army Airfield, an external pilot flew it to a higher altitude and then turned over the aircraft to two company soldiers in a ground control station van at the airfield.
Those soldiers flew the aircraft to the area where the plane would fly a mission, turning over the aircraft to two other soldiers in a ground control station. For security reasons, the location was not to be disclosed.
The reverse would happen when the mission was finished and the Hunter returned to Fort Huachuca.
The Army unit's focus was on training the soldiers and providing assistance to the Border Patrol.
It takes some time for a unit to show up to support a federal law enforcement agency.
Joint Task Force North, with headquarters at Fort Bliss, Texas, handles all support requests.
Lt. Col. George Benter, an Army aviator, is one of the task force's mission planners who worked the Hunter request.
The process can take more than a half of a year, Benter said. But in this case, it was about four months from the time the request was received until the unit was flying missions.
Parisher said the type of operational mission the Border Patrol was looking for fit in to what his company could provide, and the training the soldiers would get made it a perfect match.
Once the pieces began to fall into place, Benter worked with the company and the Border Patrol .
The final act was making sure Company, A, 224th Military Intelligence Battalion could perform the job.
"I certified they could do the mission," Benter said.
The movement of equipment - the aircraft, ground control stations and soldiers - was planned, and those assigned to the deployment arrived on Fort Huachuca. For operational security reasons, when the unit arrived and when it will leave was off limits.
Supervisor Floyd Robbins is the Border Patrol's point man for this mission - there have been at least two other UAV deployments supporting the Naco Station. He also supervised the agency's actions with the other Army UAV support missions.
With special forward-looking infrared radar, the night missions are the best time to use Hunters, Robbins said. Cameras and other equipment on the pilotless planes also do good work in daylight, he said.
With most of the illegal traffic crossing the border at night, the aircraft has the capability to identify heat signatures on the ground, Robbins said.
"All that has to be done is to determine if the signatures are humans, cattle or deer," he said.
Even that is easier as an agent and a soldier diagnose the live video feed into the Naco Border Patrol Station Control Room.
The agent monitoring the live feed can ask the soldiers flying the UAV and operating the intelligence payload to circle and zoom in on suspicious activities on the ground, Robbins said.
If a Border Patrol sensor goes off and the aircraft is close, the UAV can be sent to the coordinates where the alarm came from and search, he added.
"It's a great additional tool in our arsenal," Robbins said, "It can reach out."
Robbins also worked on a test program of the Hermes unmanned aerial vehicle, which the Department of Homeland Security looked at for the agency. Another aircraft that was considered is the Hunter.
U.S. Rep. Jim Kolbe, R-Ariz., whose district includes Cochise County, is seeking $10 million for a Border Patrol UAV project.
At first, Robbins said he wasn't too sure about the benefit of UAVs.
But his view has changed. He would even like to operate a pilotless plane - or at least the cameras and or other equipment.
There are flight restrictions that will have to be worked out with FAA if the agency does get its own UAV fleet, Robbins added.
The Hunters see into places that are difficult for border agents to get to on foot, Robbins said.
The beauty of the unmanned aerial vehicles is they can loiter for long times over a group of people who have crossed the border illegally until agents can pick them up.
The Army company's senior noncommissioned officer is perhaps the newest person to the unit's UAV program.
First Sgt. Theresa Dailey-Johnson, a Persian/Farsi linguist and human intelligence soldier, said she had no idea what UAVs were capable of doing until she became the company's first sergeant.
As a human intelligence collector, she said she has gained an appreciation for the capabilities of not only the aircraft but the soldiers who operate the plane.
From her perspective, UAVs are an addition to human intelligence collection, even though technically the system is part of the Army's imagery intelligence.
Instead of putting human intelligence soldiers in harm's way by being on the ground, the information that comes back from the air will help them.
"It's over the top," Dailey-Johnson said of the Hunter.
Like Robbins, she also wants to learn more about UAVs.
Supporting the Border Patrol and seeing the unit's soldiers working in a real-world environment is helping the first sergeant gain information and appreciation.
"This is not just training. It's a live mission," Dailey-Johnson said.
HERALD/REVIEW senior reporter Bill Hess can be reached at 515-4615 or by e-mail at bill.hess@svherald.com.
Ezai I. Martinez wrote on Jun 24, 2009 7:58 PM: