4th CS: Wired up, fired up

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Heather Stanton
  • 4th Fighter Wing Public Affairs
SEYMOUR JOHNSON AIR FORCE BASE, N.C. --  The 4th Communications Squadron is wired up, and fired up, to provide cyber support to the 4th Fighter Wing and 916th Air Refueling Wing through multiple skill sets in airfield technology and network operations.

"The mission of the 4th CS is to provide communication warriors, enabling the world's most effective combat power in seamless delivery of air, space and cyberspace power anywhere in the world," said Maj. Paul Whitfield, 4th CS commander.

The 120 Airmen and civilians working in the squadron compose two flights.

"The operations flight is the day-to-day operations to outside customers," said Senior Master Sgt. Tony Townsend, 4th CS superintendent. This includes airfield maintenance on landing systems and radar technology, and network operations such as base servers and e-mail.

The Client Support Center is also within the operations flight.

The CSC is an office that consolidates all the client support administrators, allowing computer problems to be solved in a timely fashion, Major Whitfield said. The administrators solve most computer issues over the phone or through remote access to the troubled unit. If the issue cannot be resolved by phone, a trouble ticket is put in and a technician is sent out.

The 4th CS plans and resources flight is in charge of implementing any new systems or programs within the squadron, Major Whitfield said. They also manage the budget and commercial contracts for the squadron and are the subject matter experts when it comes to base-wide communications operations.

One upcoming plan the flight is currently working on is Ignite Air Combat Command, an initiative to integrate collaboration through systems such as Sharepoint and the upcoming Microsoft Office Communications Server, Major Whitfield said.

Sharepoint is an electronic evaluation management system used for enlisted and officer performance reports and decorations and, according to Major Whitfield, significantly improves the routing efforts of these evaluations, with the cooperation of the 4th Force Support Squadron.

"The rollout of the Office Communication Server integrates all Microsoft Office communication servers together," Major Whitfield said. "OCS is a key piece to establishing a unified message."

OCS uses the concept of presence to accomplish its goal to enhance and improve collaboration in day-to-day operations. Users can make use of video chats and instant messaging to accomplish work from different locations.

Though there is a lot going on here at Seymour Johnson, the 4th CS continues to deploy Airmen to the far edges of the world. 

"There is approximately 25 percent of the squadron consistently deployed," Major Whitfield said. "There is a comm guy everywhere you need to go in the Air Force."

There are many misconceptions regarding communications squadrons throughout the Air Force. Sergeant Townsend would like to clear up the biggest one.

"We are not all geeks," he said. "We are there to help the customer, that is our main focus. I always tell my Airmen that the customer's problem is your problem. Do not just pass it on to another agency, follow through with it until it's done and the customer is satisfied."

The vision of the 4th CS is very simple, according to Major Whitfield:

"We want to deliver operationally-focused cyber capabilities wherever and whenever needed," he said.