MARINE CORPS BASE QUANTICO, Va. -- Painstaking planning goes into scheduling the various potentially dangerous activities that take place every day on Quantico’s 34 ranges. But that’s not the business of the Range Management Branch’s Range Control Facility, commonly referred to as the fire desk. There, operators live in the Now.
“If it happened yesterday or happens tomorrow, we don’t want to know about it,” said Bill Thompson, fire desk supervisor. “We deal with today, and today only.”
At three workstations arranged in a horseshoe behind a locked door, under dim, red lights, Thompson, Sgt. Henry Hurtado and Cpl. Thomas Goddard maintained contact with every unit operating on or over the ranges in the afternoon of March 14.
Instructors with The Basic School were launching artillery and mortars into Range 7, and Cobra attack helicopters would soon fly over to carry out air support operations.
Meanwhile, explosives training was underway on all three demolition ranges, and the Warfighting Lab, Marine Helicopter Squadron 1, Weapons Training Battalion, the FBI Academy and some of The Basic School’s Alpha Company were all shooting on different ranges. In all, eight ranges were “hot” at the moment, meaning ordnance of some type was being expended.
Amid all this live fire, the Drug Enforcement Agency and some Alpha Co. Marines were practicing patrolling on roads. Members of the Quantico Orienteering Club roamed Training Area 16, and volunteers for the Fish, Wildlife and Agronomy Section were conducting a beaver survey.
Overhead, government helicopters flew in and out, and one unit was flying unmanned aerial vehicles. On the live map of the Integrated Range Status System, shown on several screens around the Range Control Facility, a dozen floating, white blotches represented the planes flying over the base, which is in the final approach area for all three of the region’s major airports and has an air facility of its own.
The three phone lines rang almost constantly, calls came in on the enhanced land mobile radio, and the Federal Aviation Administration’s Domestic Events Network chattered away in the background.
Every change in the range status map and every radio and telephone call in or out of the Range Control Facility is recorded, so that events can be reconstructed in the case of a mishap.
The fire desk also directs the many patrolmen that Range Management has on the ground, inspecting sites after groups leave, checking in on anyone who doesn’t respond immediately to calls, and opening and closing the road gates that keep people out of ranges where bullets are flying.
“They’re our eyes and ears out there on the road,” Thompson said.
Each of the fire desk operators begins training as a patrolman for one to two months, to get to know the area, followed by two or three months of training in the Range Control Facility.
“Some guys don’t make it,” Thompson said. “Some people just don’t have the makeup to be that attentive for that long.”
“The craziest days are when you just got certified and you’re in here by yourself,” said Cpl. Andrew Johnson, who relieved Hurtado that afternoon, explaining that it takes time to know what to tell all the pilots, patrolmen and instructors calling the fire desk. Then there’s the occasional emergency, such as an injury or missing person, and rescuers not only need information, but also a safe path through the live fire.
“It’s kind of like triage, I guess. You’ve got to decide which calls are the most important to take first,” Johnson said.
The Range Control Facility is the main focus of effort at RMB, and Thompson refers to the fire desk operators as “the last line of defense.”
No emergencies came up that afternoon, but high winds caused issues. The FAA called, wanting to lower the altitude that planes could fly over the base, as gusts up to 27 knots were complicating their maneuvers. The Range Control Facility coordinated with the units in the field to maximize the use of the airspace.
Goddard, who just finished training the week before, took over operations while Hurtado briefed Johnson on everything that had happened that day, up to the minute.
“Now the corporal knows what conversations have taken place, so he can address any potential situations that arise,” Thompson said. The operators are trained in how to communicate with and “advise” senior leaders while their units are training on the ranges and in the training areas.
As the FBI and one of the TBS companies phoned in to say they were leaving, Hurtado briefed Johnson on the Osprey aircraft that would demonstrate their high-speed approach into Landing Zone Hen that evening.
The action would slow down after dark, but it almost never stops, and the fire desk manages it 24 hours a day, seven days a week, with operators working in eight- to 12-hour shifts.
“There’s nothing really difficult that they have to do,” Thompson said. “It’s just doing all of the tasks at once that gets difficult.”
This is why the door to the Range Control Facility is locked to keep out distractions. The low, red lighting is for the sake of the computers and servers, but Thompson said it also helps to keep the mood tranquil in the room. “So when an emergency happens, they can stay calm and handle it.”
And this is the essence of the job: staying Zen, and managing the Now as it unfolds.
— Writer: mdicicco@quanticosentryonline.com