Terra-dactyl

[Finite Statist Machine]

In my dream were troops coming back from either Afghanistan or Iraq. There was a dispute ongoing between the soldiers and their commanders about letting them keep their sat-radios which were connected to something called Terra-Dactyl (tera-dactile? - it was not the spelling of the dinosaur bird) which was some kind of Satellite based troop communication system.
The essense of the dispute was the soldiers wanted to keep their radios so they could listen in on their buddies still in the war. The soldiers had developed a group consciousness with this radio system, much like what happens in Facebook or on the Web. The scene i saw was them using it to radio in just before they had to enter a fortified village - it was their way of letting everyone know they were now entering a danger zone and to prepare others in case they needed reinforcements. It gave the troop units unusual cohesiveness given the real time nature of the communications. The problem seemed to be when the military brass insisted the turn back in their radios after leaving deployment, which was done for reasons of lessening post traumatic stress syndrome - or so they said. The troops were furious at being denied access radio signals of the men they lived and fought with.
I have never been in the military, and I have no idea of such a system exists in real life.