Roche urges civilians to register contact data

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Air Force civilian employees can benefit from the same next-of-kin notification process provided to the families of injured or killed uniformed airmen by providing their emergency contact information in a secure electronic file.

"So far very few of our civilians have registered. This is a great service to our total force that has never existed before," said Dr. James G. Roche, secretary of the Air Force.

"This is the right thing to do. I hope our Air Force civilians, commanders and supervisors will do their best to ensure everyone knows about the online Emergency Data System and how to sign up," he said.

The electronic form, on the Air Force Personnel Center Web site takes most people about 15 minutes to complete, officials at the center said. It asks them questions about which relatives to contact in an emergency.

"With this system, we have immediate access to civilian emergency contact information. But it only works if people take a few minutes on behalf of their families to provide the necessary data," said Thomas Perry, chief of the casualty division at the center.

Currently, most civilians' emergency contact information resides only with a person's supervisor, which is not much help in the many cases where the supervisor is unavailable, officials said.

"It's important that we be able to locate and notify family members as quickly as possible after a casualty mishap," Perry said.

"We want to be able to do something we couldn't do immediately after Sept. 11 -- ensure we provide family members accurate and timely information about civilian Air Force people involved in an attack or an accident," he said.

Civilian members can access their record by logging on the AFPC secure Web site at http://www.afpc.randolph.af.mil/emds/default.htm. New users will need to first establish an account. Once logged in, civilians should press the "EMDS" button to access the form.

For more information, call the Air Force Contact Center toll free at (866) 229-7074. (Courtesy of AFPC News Service)