Author Archive

Offshore Facilities: Growing Vulnerabilities in the Maritime Environment

Any opinions expressed in the preceding article represent their own views and are not necessarily the official views of the U.S. Coast Guard.Offshore energy platforms, which are vital to help the United States meet its energy requirements, not only are growing in number but also create unique security challenges. Using

Rescue 21 Update: Advanced Comm Capabilities for the New Century

Mayday! Mayday! The internationally recognized distress call for mariners and aviators; however, if no one hears the call, help will not be dispatched.  The U.S. Coast Guard has been taking steps to make sure that their ships and shore stations do hear the call, whenever and wherever it is sounded,

COTPs Updating Port Plans to Combat Maritime Terrorism

Successfully combating maritime terrorism within a U.S. port requires a coordinated effort among federal, state, local, and private-sector security forces. To coordinate the multi-force effort required involves extensive joint planning, well ahead of time, between and among the numerous stakeholders involved. In accordance with guidelines mandated in the Maritime Transportation

Rocks, Shoals, Obstructions, and the SAFE Port Act

The SAFE Port Act – officially called the Security and Accountability For Every Port Act, which was enacted by the U.S. Congress in 2006 – addresses a broad spectrum of port-security matters that had not been adequately covered by previous laws, including the Maritime Transportation Act of 2002.  One aspect

The Next Wave of Synergy in Port/Maritime Security

Synergy, fusion, jointness, unity of effort – all are important characteristics to the success of the multi-agency operations needed to ensure the security of ports in the United States – but those laudable characteristics also are difficult to achieve, particularly when a broad spectrum of agencies control their forces from

Important Gains Registered at Small-Vessel Security Summit

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) hosted a “National Small-Vessel Security Summit” conference in Arlington, Va., last month that could lead to several important changes in the nation’s maritime-security posture. Small vessels – i.e., those less than 300 gross tons – have been a vehicle of choice for terrorists

USMA’s CTC Addresses Global Terrorism Threat

When the words “West Point” are mentioned, the names and exploits of famous generals such as Grant, Eisenhower, and Patton come to mind along with visions of crisp fall days, duty, honor, country, as well as an institution, the U.S. Military Academy (USMA), that is as much of America’s fabric

Port Security Exercises and Training: A Formidable Curriculum

As explained on the U.S. Transportation Security Agency’s website, PortSTEP (the Port Security Training and Exercise Program) was established as a partnership with the U.S. Coast Guard to improve “the intermodal transportation industry’s ability to prepare for and contend with a Transportation Security Incident.” The program is in that context

Guarding the Great Lakes: Athena and the Northern Maritime Border Initiative

The U.S. northern maritime border poses a significant challenge for U.S. and Canadian law-enforcement agencies. The Great Lakes border between the two nations, which extends over 1,500 miles, and the Saint Lawrence Seaway teem with commercial and recreational traffic routinely moving back and forth between the territorial waters separating the

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Article Out Loud – Mental Awareness to Enhance Preparedness

  Full article by Andrew (Andy) Altizer, an Article Out Loud from Domestic Preparedness, April 17, 2024. In this featured article, an emergency manager with military experience points out that emergency managers, public health officials, and first responders often stress the importance of physical fitness, but sometimes neglect mental fitness.

Article Out Loud – Primary Care Investments to Increase Community Resilience

  Full article by Angie Im, an Article Out Loud from Domestic Preparedness, April 17, 2024. In this featured article, a healthcare research and policy expert describes the importance of community health centers and their impact on community resilience. These medical lifelines for millions of Americans are facing financial and

Article Out Loud – The Missing Plague Vials

  Full article by Robert C. Hutchinson, an Article Out Loud from Domestic Preparedness, April 17, 2024. In this featured article, an experienced federal agent shares a true story of missing bubonic plague vials, an airport bomb threat, and other suspicious activities that demonstrate continued national and homeland security vulnerabilities

Article Out Loud – The “R” Word

  Full article by George Schwartz, an Article Out Loud from Domestic Preparedness, April 10, 2024. In this featured article, an associate professor at Immaculata University addresses the challenge of defining resilience and the need to go beyond hazard mitigation. With 2024 being the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s “Year of Resilience,”

Article Out Loud – Dungeons and Disasters: Gamification of Public Health Responses

  Full article by Michael Etzel and Michael Prasad, an Article Out Loud from Domestic Preparedness, April 10, 2024. In this featured article, two emergency managers describe how advanced technologies are offering new ways to train personnel, exercise public health responses like COVID-19, and prepare response agencies for many other

Article Out Loud – Interoperability During Mass Casualty Incidents

  Full article by Charles Guddemi and Catherine Feinman, an Article Out Loud from Domestic Preparedness, April 3, 2024. In this featured article, the District of Columbia’s Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency’s statewide interoperability coordinator and the editor of Domestic Preparedness highlight the key takeaways from a 2024 interoperability

Article Out Loud – Emergency Management Goes to the Hill

  Full article by Kay C. Goss and Catherine L. Feinman, an Article Out Loud from Domestic Preparedness, March 27, 2024. In this featured article, two attendees of a Senate briefing on “The State of Emergency Management” discuss the assistance needs of emergency managers working behind the scenes to ensure

Article Out Loud – The Evolution of Homeland Security Higher Education

  Full article by Heather Issvoran, an Article Out Loud from Domestic Preparedness, March 27, 2024. In this featured article, the director of strategic communications for the Center for Homeland Defense and Security describes how homeland security education expanded after the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, to ensure that

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