Emergency Management Program is used in the Army for the purposes of providing response efforts in planning, managing and execution in mitigating risks and its effects. Emergency Response plan is aligned to Department of Defense (DOD) and the U.S. Army. National Incident Management System (NIMS) as a consistency measure on the services provided by Department of Defense being adopted and implemented in all domestic installations (USNORTHCOM, 2012). The performance of U.S. Army without critical consideration of size, complexity and cause, is checked through NIMS and ICS on the nation’s effectiveness and efficiency in responding to domestic cases. According to USNORTHCOM (2012) best practices and consistent ones are integrated together by NIMS in relation to domestic incident in accordance with the federal, local, state and tribal abilities in jurisdiction levels.
In 2002 October 1, U.S. Northern Command was formed in Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado so as to provide control and command on the Defense Department homeland defense efforts and thus be in a position to coordinate a defense of the civil authorities (USNORTHCOM, 2012). As such, it defends the national power, nation’s people and the action freedom. U.S. Northern Command is expected to provide homeland defense through planning, organization and execution of services and the president and the secretary of defense can order it into a civil mission to provide support (USNORTHCOM, 2012).
NORAD (North American Aerospace Defense Command) is managed by U.S. Northern Command commander in protecting the aerospace surrounding Alaska, Canada and the entire United States (NORAD, 2012). In relation to this, U.S Northern Command’s responsibility and NORAD’s operations relate to each other in military participations and they both enjoy the services of one commander (NORAD 2012). However, under the United States of America laws, military forces are not expected to associate directly with enforcement of law instead it should provide civil support. In relation to this, it is only during emergencies such as a disaster that the military is allowed to enforce the law directly by being a lead agency. The emergency response plan would be carried out in five steps.
The response capability and probability should be assessed in Army installations. This assessment takes into consideration the environment, personnel involved and the infrastructures. Emergency responders, detection, response to warning, medical surveillance and security surveys are some of the techniques used in emergency response (NRF 2012). As the federal building exploded the first emergency response would be to assess the needs by evaluating the impacts of hazards of that emergency. Destruction of lives and property in the blast would be its major hazard and thus survivors have to be attended to and minimize the possible opportunities of the blast occurring again by arresting the three military personnel suspected to be involved.
Secondly, write a policy on the situation such as the types of explosives, personnel involved. This policy should aim at stating the objectives of the military in protecting their nations against terrorism and show they are committed into providing solutions in regards to the attack. The response on the incidents of all-inclusive and all-hazards is based on planned individual factors. The individual factors are listed as biological, natural hazard, nuclear, chemical, high-yield explosive and radiological by the Catastrophic Incident Supplement (CIS) and National Response Framework.
Thirdly, the level of response to the emergency is part of the response plan. The incident commander is expected to create and delegate assignments to the team and provide them with training through the Emergency Coordinator so as to ensure efficiency and effectiveness in the response process. In every scenario the team should be able to identify protection by analyzing the specific hazards. The responders’ limitations, capabilities and requirements must be assessed by the staff and commanders with high consideration of hazardous materials incidents. During an emergency, army colonels are usually assigned to the U.S Army North as defense coordinating officer (DCO) who validates the resources being used at the emergency and makes contact with the Defense department.
Fourthly, training of every personnel involved in sorting the emergency should be carried out at different response levels. As such, the emergency response team has to handle the hazard before and after it explodes. Preparations of all the hazards have to be considered for a better response in emergency. Preparations will be carried out by emergency officials in terms of accountability, atmospheric monitoring, communications, extrication, rescue and identification of contamination in the environment so that the evidence can be stored for future use. At the emergency center, Emergency Operations Centre (EOC), there is need to develop a communication plan by its staff and ensuring there is integration between them and local authority for the purposes of proper flow of responses and resources as requested by the incident commander.
Lastly, an audit is in order as a response plan strategy that seeks to promote continuous communication within and outside the emergency team and a process should be prepared to accommodate changes in protection and exposure levels. According to Winnefeld (2011) force protection and counterterrorism should be a major concern for USNORTHCOM and NORAD since violent extremists have been threatening the nation’s capability and intent.
