A Sentinel communications vehicle assigned to U.S. Army North is offloaded November 15, 2006, from a C-17 at McClellan Business Park in Sacramento, Calif. The movement from Fort Sam Houston, Texas, marked the first time the communications vehicle has been air deployed. Within one hour of the offload, satellite telephone and computer communications capability were established to support USARNORTH's participation in Exercise Golden Guardian, a weeklong earthquake consequence management exercise. The Sentinel is designed to maintain communications between local, state and federal agencies, as well as Department of Defense assets deployed to support civil authorities during natural or manmade disasters. USARNORTH is the Army's newest service component command and is assigned to U.S. Northern Command, the unified command responsible for defending the U.S. homeland and providing defense support to civil authorities.
Photo by Bob Purtiman