While many young men his age are just thinking about their next step in life, 19-year-old Army Pvt. Ryan Masterson is keeping an eye on the airspace in a combat zone. Masterson, from McHenry, Ill., is an aviation operations specialist for the Air Defense and Airspace Management Cell here.
“We track the airspace for our brigade’s area of operations and get real-time video feeds of what’s going on with our airspace,” he explained. “It gives us a better idea of where each aircraft is and what they are doing so we can track everything a lot better.” ... “We make sure that the infantry soldiers have whatever they need as far as air support,”he said, whether it’s firepower from an Apache attack helicopter or a Chinook helicopter delivery of food or water. Masterson, who has been in the Army a little more than two years, coordinates air support with troops on the ground via radio and phone systems to find out what the soldiers on the ground need -- whether it’s air support, supplies or reconnaissance flights from unmanned aerial vehicles.
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