She’s called the “shredder queen.” Staff Sgt. Cassandra Ali, 379th Expeditionary Communications Squadron base records manager, keeps track of Airmen who sign up to shred paper. In the last two weeks, she’s moved 57 20-pound bags of pulverized paper from the base’s newest operational security tool, a multipurpose high-security, high-volume industrial shredder.

The shredder is far from your standard paper slicer.

“Pulverizer would be a more appropriate name,” said Senior Master Sgt. James Patrie, 379th Information Services Flight superintendent. “What comes out of that machine looks nothing like paper.”

Unlike most unclassified shredders on base, this high-security pulverizer grates paper to an extremely fine consistency, with the final product looking and feeling like dryer lint with the consistency of fine wool.

“There’s no hope for anyone to piece together anything that goes through this machine,” Sergeant Ali said. “It’s simply impossible.”

The shredder pulverizes up to 180 pounds of paper per hour, with a security screen that ensures only dust-like particles can escape.

“It sure beats the smaller shredders on base,” Sergeant Ali said. “You can shred up to 50 sheets of paper at a time in this machine. And, that saves people a lot of time, even if they have to drive over here once a week to shred their paper.”

The shredder also destroys old floppy disks (with the metal removed first), CDs and DVDs. These newer media can only be destroyed one item at a time. All of the paper and media waste goes through a foot-wide opening into the machine.

The entire machine is about the size of a phone booth. Moments later the pulverized paper comes out the back end, and falls into a 6-foot-tall plastic bag for collection.

On busy days, Sergeant Ali changes the bag up to 10 times. The shredder may quickly destroy paper compared to other tools, but Sergeant Ali contends Airmen should not forget safety in their zeal to shred documents.

”It’s a very powerful tool,” she said. “But, it can also be dangerous if people don’t use common sense.”

Before destroying paper or other media, servicemembers should secure all loose clothing, ID card holders and purses.

The same machine that pulverizes paper could be a deadly instrument if safety precautions aren’t followed. The 379th ISF offers hearing and eye protection; gloves and masks are also available.

A limited amount of fine dust escapes from the bag during the shredding process, but a sophisticated built-in ventilation system ensures people won’t inhale hazardous amounts of fibers.

Sergeant Ali sets her goals high, hoping to see 90 percent of the wing’s paper pulverized by the shredder.

Sergeant Patrie said shredding is “the way to go,” contending operational security is critical. The shredder provides a common-sense approach to destroying hard copies of sensitive information.

“We’re in a wartime environment,” Sergeant Patrie said. “Anything that comes out of a printer should be shredded, or it can be reassembled by the enemy, and they can solve the puzzle. The shredder is the realistic solution -- ensuring no information is left behind for the enemy.”