An official website of the United States government
A .mil website belongs to an official U.S. Department of Defense organization in the United States.
A lock (lock ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .mil website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Eagle Vision IV member returns from deployment to Turkey

  • Published
  • By Capt. Roy Condrey
  • 169th CF/SCEV
MCENTIRE JOINT NATIONAL GUARD BASE, South Carolina --     SCANG Eagle Vision 4 team member Master Sgt. Troy Wilkerson recently returned from a 40-day deployment with the USAF Eagle Vision 1 team to the Ankara Support Facility in Ankara, Turkey. The team consisted of 12 members: Wilkerson, two from EV6 (226 CBCS, Huntsville, Alabama) and nine from EV1 (USAF, Ramstein AB, Germany).

   The primary purpose of the mission was to downlink and produce satellite imagery of Syria and Northern Iraq into a GEOTIFF and NITF format. The team successfully captured 61 percent of Syria and Northern Iraq, including 16 predetermined high priority imagery targets. All the imagery captured was in panchromatic (black and white) and retrieved from the SPOT 5 satellite.

   During the mission, the team was given an opportunity to demonstrate their capabilities to the Head of the Photogrammetry Department, Ministry of National Defense General Command of Mapping, Engineer Colonel Nejat Aksoy. Colonol Aksoy stated he was "impressed with Eagle Vision's capabilities of capturing nearly instant images around Turkey."

   According to Brig. Gen. James E. Daniel, Senior Defense Official/Defense Attaché, "The mission furthered the US-Turkey military relationship and reinforced the high-level of US commitment to Turkey".

   EV4 is one of only five Tactical Mobile Satellite Ground Stations owned by the United States Department of Defense and is assigned to McEntire's 169th Communications Flight. The Eagle Vision program produces near real-time unclassified commercial imagery for use by various government agencies.
According to Wilkerson, the mission was a great success and his fellow Eagle Vision IV members look forward to future cooperative missions with their active duty Eagle Vision counterparts.