1st Battalion 22nd Infantry BATS training

Spc Troy Wollan, A medic with
Co. C 4th SPT BN, takes an image
of his battle buddy during
BATS training.

FORT HOOD, Texas – The 1st Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division continues to train here prior to departure for Operation Iraqi Freedom even though their equipment is already enroute to the Middle East.

One event the Raider Brigade focused on is the Biometric Automated Tool Set training for various unit personnel who are expected to handle the detention of enemy combatants.

A Mobile Training Team from Fort Huachuca, Ariz. came here to train the personnel from several units who will be using the BATS equipment in their duties handling detainees.

Capt. Clyde Ball, the provost marshall officer for the Raider Brigade, explained that BATS gives Coalition Forces the ability to track people. “We may not know if we found a bad guy, but the BATS will tell us.”

The BATS creates a detainee database for detainment operations at multiple levels: division, corps and U.S. Central Command, said Ball.
The database is built from digital information collected using the BATS features: photograph, fingerprint and retinal scan capabilities.
Additional information is entered into the computer such as the subject’s hair color, height, weight, age and so on.

The BATS was designed for the FBI and other agencies within the Department of Homeland Security.

“The basic BATS system is 22-pounds,” said Peggy Heinrich, a contractor on the MTT. It is portable and easily carried around the battlefield.

The primary purpose of the BATS system is for the detainee database, said Ball. He sited an example of using the BATS on the battlefield
after an Improvised Explosive Device attack. After the attack, BATS can be used to collect information from a number of bystanders or witnesses.

“If we capture a guy after an IED attack and enter him in the computer, we may find that he was involved in other IED strikes,” said Ball.

“We do a data dump a couple times a day,” said Heinrich. The information is shared with all levels in the network.

“Everybody talks,” said Heinrich. “The Army and the Marine servers talk to each other. It goes all the way up and all the way down.”

“It [BATS] does an exhaustive search of the left and right index fingers to get a match,” said Heinrich. “It is as updated as the last down load.”

When asked about the compatibility of other digital cameras, Heinrich explained, “anyone can take a picture with a digital camera,
download it to the [BATS] computer and we can check the database for a match.”

So when a patrol collects data from a guy in Ball’s example after an IED attack, the BATS can tell them they are dealing with a bad guy.
The bad guy can be detained for questioning. “It’s an easy system to use,” added Heinrich.

There are other uses for the BATS system such as an access system to the Tactical Operations Center.
“We could put it at the TOC and do finger prints and retinal scans to gain access,” said Ball.

Pfc. Ollie Davis, a fueler with Company C, 4th Support Battalion, agreed. “It seems to be easy to use.”

Regardless of where the BATS system is used, it will be a valuable tool in 1st BCT’s tool box. BATS is an example of the digitized capability of the 4th Inf. Div. as they are the U.S. Army’s premiere digital formation.

Meanwhile, the Raider Brigade is trained and ready to deploy and conduct any mission in Iraq that it is given.

SGT Sandra Dockham, a motor
transportation specialist from
Co. C 4th SPT BN,
receives a retinal scan from her
battle buddy during BATS training.

Staff Sergeant Gilbert Cruz, a Bradley Section Leader
from Company A 1st Battalion 22nd Infantry Regiment
takes an image of his battle buddy during BATS training.