Not your old disaster preparedness anymore

  • Published
  • By Master Sgt. Michael A. Ward
  • 380th Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs
SOUTHWEST ASIA (AFPN) --  Remember the Air Force disaster preparedness program? That was sooooo 1990s, but apparently some people are still living in the past.

Times have changed, and civil engineers everywhere are trying to get people to move into the 21st century. Disaster preparedness is out. Full spectrum threat response program, is what is happening now.

“People are still calling it disaster preparedness,” said Senior Master Sgt. Doug Senters, 380th Expeditionary Civil Engineer Squadron readiness supervisor at a forward-deployed location here. “When I start talking about FSTR here, I’m surprised at the number of people who are hearing of it for the first time.”

The newer program replaced the disaster preparedness program after the 2001 terrorist attacks. The Air Force readiness community, which had been poised for more than 50 years to deal primarily with Cold War threats, found it needed to deal with a wider variety of potential problems.

“FSTR teams are still trained and equipped to respond to commonly known physical threats such as major accidents; hazardous material incidents; natural disasters; and nuclear, biological, chemical and conventional weapons incidents,” said Lt. Col. Jeffrey Pitchford, 380th ECES commander. “But, after 9-11, we expanded our training to better respond to a newer and broader range of threats including acts of terrorism, weapons of mass destruction incidents and threats from improvised explosive devices.”

Sergeant Senters said the goal of the expanded program is to help commanders and first-responders protect people, facilities and resources by minimizing damage and recover base operations after a natural disaster, hostile attack or major accident or incident.

The program is designed primarily to support response activities on installations in the United States and overseas; however, assets can be extended into U.S. civilian communities at the request of civilian authorities if there is an imminent and potentially grave concern, Sergeant Senters said.

The program also supports other federal emergency management programs, and response teams also work closely with state, local and civilian emergency response agencies.