In late January, the strong north wind brought biting cold to the heart of a mountain where the 1st Battalion of a communication regiment of the Second Artillery Force was conducting an accompanying communication support exercise under actual war conditions despite the severe cold. For successive days, the officers and men made communication, executed emergency support plans, and successfully accomplished all the training subjects including the skilful operation of modern digital communication system, the switch from wire to wireless communication or vice versa, telegraph transmission, fax sending and reception and data transmission. The communication support capabilities under special conditions were effectively tested in the exercise.

　　In recent years, the battalion has participated in several major communication support missions and achieved a leapfrog progress in its overall communication support capabilities through exploring new measures of battlefield communication support. The battalion has been honored the "First-class Battalion in Military Training" by the Second Artillery Force and won one third-class collective merit.

　　By Sang Linfeng, Shi Ziqiang and Feng Jinyuan

　　(Feb.7, PLA Daily)