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Gen. Mike Minihan, Commander of Air Mobility Command, visits the Niagara Falls Air Reserve Station June 8, 2024.

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914th Communications squadron equipment support communications whenever, wherever

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Andrew Caya
  • 914th Airlift Wing
NIAGARA FALLS AIR RESERVE STATION, N.Y. --  The ability to communication is a necessity in everyday occurrences; however communication during an emergency can mean the difference between relief or disaster.

The 914th Communications Squadron here, at the Niagara Falls Air Reserve Station has improved the chances of relief during a disaster exponentially when the Joint Incident Site Communications Capability added a new tool in its inventory of communication equipment.

The JISCC offers a seamless communications bridge between first responders, military service members and other local, state, and federal agencies. When deployed in an emergency, the JISCC is able to arrive at an incident site and provide global communications within four hours.

The JISCC can provide nearly anything an incident commander needs to ensure good communications during an emergency, including laptops, internet access, radios, Voice over Internet Protocol phones and Video Teleconference to an on scene commander.

It's a quick reaction package, said Master Sgt. Daryl Hoppough 914th Communications Squadron noncommissioned officer in charge of JISCC. "Basically, it covers the gap between the when the incident happens and federal agencies such as FEMA moving in and taking over the situation."

Not only does the JISCC provide communications between service members responding to the incident, the JISCC can provide an array of technological overhauls to commercial and civilian communication devices.

"If we have the fire department on one frequency, and the police on another, we can tie these frequencies in [with each other] and they have interoperability," stated Hoppough
Hoppough went on to say that the JISCC can do much more than simply connect first responders to each other.

Land lines can also be created and connected to using the JISCC, as long as we dial the number they need, said Hoppough.

Another high-tech feature of the JISCC is its ability to 'clone' the radio frequency so the civilians can be on the same communication spectrum as the military. The system can also take a cellular telephone and send the frequency to a radio so that the phone is on the same line of communications as all the other first responders, said Hoppough.

"What this is designed for, is to bridge those gaps between the common technologies."
Service members go by strict guidelines to ensure they utilize this technology properly.

"It's more than having the just the ability to [communicate], there's a lot of pre coordination for us to go out and work on this so we're not stepping on other frequencies..." said Hoppough.

Excitement and enthusiasm comes to the 914th Communications squadron with all of this new technology.

"This is new to us," said Hoppough, "we've only had it for about six months but we have had it operational, learned a lot about it and looking for avenues on where to use it."

"I am very excited to work with this equipment as well as work with the JISCC team," said Tech. Sgt. Mohammad Ali 914th Communications cyber transport operations technician. "We have a great bunch of people on this mission and we have been learning a lot just from setting the systems up and preparing the equipment [for use]."

It's easy to see how much the Airmen have learned due to the fact that there is plenty of equipment with JISCC system.

To go along with the high-tech software, the JISCC employed rugged hardware such as a durable satellite dish, an antenna, a field tent and powerful generators, all of which allows it to be set up anywhere, from a hardened facility in an urban environment, to the middle of a field in the wilderness.

"The bottom line is: we have the flexibility of a rapid deployment in a local area we also have our primary mission of supporting the base communications squadron if were to have a catastrophic event here, we would be able to connect [mission essential personnel] and have them report up," said Hoppough, "it's a great platform."