Tactical Operations Center is like the brains of a brigade. We are a 24/7 operation; no rest for the weary. We can put up a TOC like that. We can be in the middle of nowhere and in just a day have it set up, tracking the battle digitally for hundreds of miles around, knowing exactly what's going on with all of our forces and with the enemy's forces.

We're all on the same page, all of these different Soldiers from all of the branches of the Army. They're best and they're brightest. Major Taylor can just look around and see all of us automatically working to the same goal and that is mission accomplishment and, more importantly, to save Soldiers' lives.

I was outside on the perimeter defenses when one of the sergeants came out to get me because there was a situation.
Sergeant Vazquez, what's the situation?
We got report that they observed an enemy truck with a mortar tube in the back. I located it on the map, what grid and I got directions.
I knew we were gonna loose eyes on the truck soon, so I decided to get our Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, our UAVs up the in air.

Once I got eyes on the truck, I turned to Chief Blanton to see what kind of firepower he could get for me up in the air as well. I called on a team of Apache Helicopters; they came in; we watched the vehicle go into a house, and in this case we saw them actually take mortar tubes and rockets out of the bed of the truck into the house so we knew that we had a bad place.

Schuller, what is this? Sir, I think we've found the cache we've been looking for.
[Dialog]
Ground clear. Grounds clear. Fires? You guys are cool. Cass. Blue air's clear. Targets all clear, sir. Chief, engage in target.
[End Dialog]
With all the rockets and mortars that were in that house there was a pretty big explosion, and we got quite the thrill due to the fact that we just knew how many lives that we saved working together in the TOC.