Following a call at 2 a.m., SSgt. Ray Stetler, deployed to Ali Base, Iraq, with the 407th Expeditionary Communications Squadron, resolved an urgent work order to provide a secure voice connection between an MQ-1 Predator pilot deployed to Iraq and the Combined Air and Space Operations Center for a next-day mission. The in-theater pilots had been using an instant messaging system to communicate with the CAOC, which meant they had to take their eyes off their video screens. Stetler came up with a one-dollar fix, literally, the price of two meters of cable. He modified a Predator operator headset, a soldering process that took about five hours, but the work connected the headset to the Voice Over Secure Internet Protocol phone system. The Predator operators just plug the headset into their radio system and call the CAOC. According to Capt. Trey Teasley, a Predator pilot deployed to Det. 1, 41st Expeditionary Reconnaissance and Attack Squadron, being able to use VOSIP “increased productivity by 50 percent.” By the way, Stetler, deployed from Tinker AFB, Okla., had never worked with the VOSIP system before. (Ali Base report by TSgt. Francesca Popp)
The Pentagon plans to use U.S. Air Force C-17s and C-130s to deport 5,400 people currently detained by Customs and Border Protection, officials announced Jan. 22, the first act in President Donald Trump’s sweeping promise to crack down on undocumented immigrants and increase border security.