Imagine driving around a military base in south Mississippi, where you’ve never been before. The power is out, and street lighting is nonexistent. Trees are all over the road. Within 72 to 96 hours, you’re working with all your might – on little sleep – to get communications services working that emergency workers must have when cell phone towers have been blown over. This is what Fort Gordon’s 67th Signal Battalion faced last year [2005] as soldiers from the unit were called to provide basic links to the outside world for soldiers and civilians trying to coordinate relief efforts in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
(Originally published in The Augusta Chronicle, Sept. 5, 2006. Original URL: https://www.augustachronicle.com/stories/2006/09/05/met_95334.shtml)