Spangdahlem Airmen evaluated on anti-terrorism measures

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Richard Gonzales
  • Detachment 9, Air Force News Agency
SPANGDAHLEM AIR BASE, Germany (AFNEWS) --  The Defense Threat Reduction Agency recently sent an inspection team to evaluate the anti-terrorism measures taking place here.

"We come in and look at what a terrorist (might) see from the outside looking in." said Army Colonel Mike Sigmund, the chief of Joint Staff Integrated Vulnerability Assessment Team Six. Colonel Sigmund and his team spent five days evaluating what measures are being taken to prevent a terrorist attack here.
 
"We had to take a hard look at the things sometimes overlooked when thinking about fighting terrorism," said Colonel Sigmund. 

The team analyzed everything from communications to logistics to first responders such as the fire department, security forces and emergency medical staff. 

Colonel Sigmund says it's easy to turn on a fire hose or switch on the siren in a patrol car, but the reaction is a proactive approach to making sure the installation is logistically sound. 

"You can't fight a fire caused by a terrorist attack without water," he said. "You need communications to coordinate with different responders. Those are the things we have to be concerned with." 

That's why the team is organized into areas of expertise such as terrorist operations analyst, force protection specialist, structural engineer and infrastructure engineer.
 
The Defense Threat Reduction Agency was created by the Joint Chiefs of Staff after a string of terrorist attacks in the mid 1980s through 1996. So after five days of hard looking, the agency, created because of terrorist attacks, is taking a proactive approach to fighting future terrorism.

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