HOLLOMAN AIR FORCE BASE, N.M. --
Members of the 49th Operations Support Squadron’s Communications Air Traffic Control and Landing Systems Maintenance Operations Center worked on optimizing a radio site at Buck Mountain, N.M., Aug. 29, 2017.
The Buck Mountain radio site is one of seven HAFB radio sites and is primarily used by the 54th Fighter Group. This site allows F-16 pilots the ability to communicate between nearby airports and the HAFB air traffic control tower.
“This week there are going to be two land mobile radio shop and three ATCALS personnel working together trying to optimize the whole site,” said Master Sgt. Moises Guzman, 49th OSS Airfield Operations superintendent. “They are putting in new cables and new connectors trying to get as prepared as they can before winter gets here.”
CAMOC is a fusion of the land mobile radio shop from the 49th Communications Squadron and the 49th OSS ATCALS shop.
“About a year ago we realized that a lot of both shops’ tasks are intertwined and can mutually benefit from a consolidation of equipment and manpower,” said 1st. Lt. Patrick Ward, 49th OSS CAMOC officer in charge. “Now, if you go to a radio site or a radar site you will see LMR folks working side by side with ATCAL folks.”
One of the biggest challenges members of CAMOC face are the harsh winters that completely deteriorate the cable lines and radios causing them to have to return the following year and perform repairs.
“In today’s fiscally constrained environment it’s always a challenge to make anything come to fruition,” said Col. Jeffery Patton, 49th Operations Group commander. “We talk about innovation all the time. This is the perfect example of Airmen finding an issue that was not resourced properly and was not getting enough attention so they created this organization to tackle a problem in an innovative way while working with partners.”