Colorado Soldier Supplies Space Information to New York Guard

FORT DRUM, N.Y. - When leaders and staff of the New York Army National Guard's 42nd Infantry Division, currently conducting command post exercises at Fort Drum, need to know how space assets can assist their planning and operations, they're turning to an officer from the Colorado Army National Guard.

Maj. Thomas Dell, a space officer assigned to the 117th Space Battalion, 1st Space Brigade, U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command, is the go-to guy for the division Soldiers conducting two weeks of annual training through Aug. 17.

Dell, a former Navy officer who graduated from the Naval Academy in 1992, provides the division staff with the necessary intelligence through satellite information and capabilities.

During the division's exercise, Dell taught the staff about space capabilities and what he could provide to each warfighting function. Space assets, he said, can help deal with everything from intelligence to aviation.

Dell's unit, the 117th Space Battalion, has a letter of agreement with the 42nd Infantry Division and the 35th Infantry Division, agreeing to support both divisions with space assets when needed, whether the division is overseas or doing an exercise stateside.

During the 42nd Infantry Division's deployment to Kuwait in 2020, eight of the 117th's Soldiers deployed with the headquarters as it commanded Task Force Spartan Shield.

Dell said Soldiers use space satellites' communications, navigation, and intelligence collection capabilities to move and communicate.

"Working in the field the past five years, I've realized that Army space utilizes the other warfighting functions and adds value to all of them," Dell said.

Aviation is one of those functions where information provided by satellites makes a difference, said Chief Warrant Officer 5 Aaron Teichner, the division's air mission survivability officer.

"His discipline is very collaborative; space integrates capabilities into multi-domain operations that reduce risk to Army aviation and enhance the effects that Army aviation can deliver to the enemy," Teichner said.

"For aviation, some of those capabilities include GPS jamming awareness, terrain visualization and search and rescue support," Teichner said.

After leaving the Navy following four years of service, Dell joined the Army National Guard 15 years later in 2009 as an infantryman.

He served four years in a Special Forces Battalion - he had once wanted to be a Navy SEAL - but decided he wanted to try something new, so he decided space operations was the place.

There is a seven-week course for National Guard Soldiers to become space operations officers. You need two years of experience to earn the Basic Space Badge, five years for the Senior Space Badge, and eight for the Master Space Badge.

His unit, the 117th Space Battalion, was organized in 2006 and is among the most deployed in the National Guard. The battalion fields 12 space support teams working with commercial and classified government space-based assets to support unit commanders.

Even with Dell's years of service and diverse background in the Army, one thing hasn't changed: cheering for the Navy during the yearly rival Army-Navy game.

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