KANDAHAR AIR FIELD, Afghanistan — November mornings cast a chilly spell on the sprawling military installation. The roar of a huge jet taking off from the nearby runway drowns out the daily call to early morning prayer, while gentle breezes from the north pushes the dirt like a dancer across the narrow roads crisscrossing the base.

This is Kandahar Air Field, one of the main NATO bases in Afghanistan that has become a launching pad for the Global War on Terror in this landlocked Muslim country, which is slightly smaller than Texas in size and roughly holding the same number of inhabitants — 30 million — as the entire state of California.

Since 2003, Nevada National Guard units have rotated into Afghanistan, some serving as far north at Bagram Air Field north of Kabul to Kandahar in the southeast, 240 highway miles from the capital city. The 422nd Expeditionary Signal Battalion (ESB), with headquarters in Reno and three National Guard companies from Reno, Las Vegas and Casa Grande, Ariz., and two active-duty companies under its wing, became one of the largest Nevada Army National Guard units to deploy to Afghanistan when soldiers arrived in the country in March.

The battalion's mission

Battalion commander Lt. Col. Jeffrey Hansen of Dayton described the 422nd's mission as providing communications to many units in southern Afghanistan, or as he calls it, becoming the AT&T of the battlefield.

“There are a couple main parts to our mission,” explained Hansen, a father of two who has been with the Guard for more than 20 years. “The ESB provides up to 30 command control nodes (connection points) organically based on the number of people and equipment within our area. Down here we're doing that through Regional Command (RC) South and several sites in RC West and one in RC East.”

The International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) has established five Regional Commands throughout Afghanistan to facilitate operations in each area.

Hansen said the signal operations provide a new phase on the battlefield, something shared with the ESBs that either precede or follow the 422nd. An ESB offers a wide spectrum of communication tools to the units and soldiers in the field, said Hansen, to include Internet, video, data, teleconferencing and secure and nonsecure communications. Hansen said the 422nd supports a plethora of organizations in several regional commands.

Additionally, the 422nd provides tactical satellite dishes and switching, something that also exists in every company. Although each company differs somewhat in the scope of its mission, Hansen said each unit provides similar services.

“The 422nd is the largest individual signal unit in Afghanistan right now, and we make up most of the 228th Theater Signal Brigade (headquartered at Bagram),” Hansen said. “We work with the J6 (Communications-Electronics Directorate) and take care of the communications within the needs of the 82nd Airborne's area of responsibility. That means providing base communications in a base like Kandahar and also providing communications and signal support to multi-national units, joint service military, civilians and contractors.”

Hansen said the feedback from the brigade staff has been positive.

“Their support has been great,” Hansen said of the Greenville, S.C.-based National Guard brigade. “This is a Guard brigade that understands the challenges we go through and our capabilities.”

Furthermore, Hansen said the battalion's signal capabilities reach outside Kandahar to many FOBs (Forward Operating Bases) scattered throughout the province and accessible only by helicopter or well planned convoy. Hansen said the talent within the battalion is making the mission succeed.

Hansen, who conducted this interview from a small office with bare plywood walls and no windows, extols the work done by the soldiers in the battalion.

“A lot of our guys do a lot of this work in the civilian word and that gave them the incentive to make it better (here) than when they found it. It has been a challenge to us,” Hansen added.