Among the lieutenant's stories there are also episodes of maximum tension that make it clear that, in addition to logistics, the Transmission Weapon is of vital importance for the armed force: indispensable for connecting and quickly transmitting orders to the various departments engaged in conflicts where , without a capillary, efficient and safe transmission system, there could be dangerous delays in actions or interceptions. Even in civil protection, the use of transmissions assumes a priority value.
Our Philip has his own opinion about the conflict in Ukraine. He is convinced that - naively - the Russian and Ukrainian soldiers, despite the bans on the use of cell phones, made themselves known and allowed to be intercepted, allowing their location.
The Army, as I have already reported, had exercises on its agenda every year to respond to NATO needs and train its efficiency. I, who met the Army way back in '88, remember the "Display Determination" - already active in '81 - but the lieutenant's story that follows does not allow us to associate the episode with this important activity.
The exercise
"In the month of October 1981 in the normal training activity, my battalion was employed in an exercise which involved all the artillery departments of the 3rd army corps with a duration of five days. As happened in all exercises, planning on site was an important activity which involved commanders at various levels and for us transmitters perfect planning was more important than the actual exercise.Forgetting a simple cable could delay the commissioning of the whole by many hours the net.
In those years we operators of the radio links had acquired a good preparation and experience, so in all the exercises we had never failed a connection. Here too we set off with efficient materials and a good supply of accessories.
The exercise took place in the Lombardy-Piedmont plain and therefore both the artillery groups and the crews following them were located in various areas. I was in charge of both large-capacity radio links and small-capacity terminals and I was stationed at the artillery command of the 3rd AC camped in the Lenta area in the province of Vercelli.
About 24 hours after our arrival, the radio link connections with the external crews were already functioning and efficient, after a few hours even the telephones were in position on the desks of the various commanders and office heads.
Telephones were of two types: there was the famous telephone EE-8 with crank and some rotary dial phones. A few months earlier, among other things, the department had been assigned a telephone exchange on a shelter to be used for civil protection needs. In order to make these telephones work, boxes were built by hand with an ad hoc electric circuit which were connected to the output of each telephone channel of the vector frequency equipment. An essential piece of equipment to operate traditional rotary dial telephones.
These handcrafted boxes gave some efficiency problems however, being a novelty, everyone preferred them in command posts instead of the old EE-8 phones even if the equipment was not adequate and not compatible with this type of telephone."
Everything seems to follow the correct course of an important activity where the artillery relies, for its promptness of response, on the efficiency of the transmission colleagues. But something was about to happen… (teacher)
Read part two: The lieutenant's stories: the situation becomes tense...
Read the third part: The Lieutenant's Tales: "Electronic Warfare"
Read: The lieutenant's tales: "Sergeant Hartman" (first part)
Read: The lieutenant's tales: "Sergeant Hartman" (second part)
Read: The lieutenant's tales: coffee
Photo: web
