Its been a while

Its been a while. Not much new for me. Its cooling off a lot. It hasn't been above a hundred for a week or so now. Steady in the high 90s during the day and 60s at night. Besides that I'm just working away on my online classes. Not much else to do. Its getting pretty close to the end. I'm getting excited. We are finally below 4 months and pretty soon we'll be below 90 days.

I should be hearing about Qatar soon. I'm excited. It will be nice to get some new scenery and something to finally write about. I mean there isn't much to do here so my blogs have been few and far between. I work, sleep and repeat. I've changed up my workouts a little bit, instead of lifting weights a lot, I've started running. Its tough getting back into it, I hadn't ran much since last fall so I was a little rusty.

If you wonder what I actually do for work, here is a little blurb that they wrote on the Red Bull website. http://www.theredbulls.org

CM&D – Collection Management and Dissemination

Posted by Public.Affairs on Mon Aug. 10, 2009 10:53 am CDT

cmd collection management dissemination

In collection management, we do exactly what it sounds like we do; we manage the collection requests in MND-South, Iraq. Located in the Analysis and Control Element (ACE), the CM&D cell is driven by a team of seven Soldiers. The collection manager is MAJ Kevin Schooler. MSG Scott Buchanan is the collection Technician. The CM&D NCOIC is SFC Tim Erdman. The Intelligence Request for Information (RFI) manager is SGT Jeremy Hemsworth. SPC Matthew Barnard and PFC Eric Jenson are the CM&D analysts. Our Air Force Liaison Officer is Capt. Tom Nipper.

The main portion of CM&D deals with imagery. When people need an image of their area of interest, they come to us with a collection request. The type of collection request depends on what the supported unit is looking for. CM&D can collect from many types of sensors including Full Motion Video (FMV), Coherent Change Detection (CCD), Ground Moving Target Indication (GMTI), Electro-Optical (EO), Infrared (IR), and Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR).

FMV is like having a video camera on an airplane. CCD measures the changes from one picture to another. GMTI measures movement on the ground. EO is like a digital camera in the sky. IR creates an image from heat signatures. SAR creates an image using microwave energy. There are other types of sensors, but these are the most commonly requested. All of these sensors are mounted on airplanes or Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), which are basically large remote-controlled airplanes.

CM&D helps guide units to the correct collection capability to fill their intelligence gaps. CM&D then will help build a collection request, which includes the targets, what to look for, and when they need it collected. We then pass this information on to CORPS (our higher echelon) to be processed. When the image is collected, it is then passed to CM&D, and it is disseminated as seen necessary.

CM&D also manages intelligence Requests For Information (RFIs). Any requests for intelligence related information are directed to CM&D. We send the requests to the appropriate cell or section to fulfill the request. When the request is fulfilled, it is sent back to the original requestor. CM&D does run 24 hour operations, and is always ready to help out with any collection requirements you may have.