FORT RUCKER, Ala. (August 14, 2014) -- August is well known in the South for the sweltering heat and the approaching end of summer, but in the Army the month's focus is antiterrorism education.
And while August is Antiterrorism Awareness Month, Cory Greenawalt, Fort Rucker Training and Doctrine Command antiterrorism officer, urges that people remain vigilant year round.
"We're trying to raise awareness and get out that every Family member, Soldier, dependent, every contractor and trusted agent are all sensors," he said. "If you see something that looks like a duck, quacks like a duck, walks like a duck … it's probably a duck -- call someone and let someone know. If something doesn't look right, get it reported."
Throughout the month of August there will be static displays set up around post and antiterrorism officials will be around the installation to help educate on antiterrorism with brochures and vignettes.
Every Friday throughout the month, Greenawalt will have a booth set up for people to visit in the atrium of Bldg. 5700 with different brochures and merchandise to promote antiterrorism.
There are different programs within the antiterrorism spectrum, including iWatch, eGuardian and iSalute, which are all designed to help Soldiers, Family members citizens and anyone in the community report suspicious activity, said Greenawalt.
Through iWatch, the program's main focus is to get people to be aware of their surroundings and remain vigilant to help stop terrorism, said the antiterrorism officer.
"Law enforcement can only do so much, so it's up to the installation's Soldiers, civilians and citizens to keep an eye out for suspicious activity," he said.
The eGuardian program is designed mainly for local law enforcement, and through this program they report on suspicious activity, which will go to the Fort Rucker antiterrorism office, said Greenawalt. With that information, antiterrorism officials go through the reports and look for credible reports and work with the local law enforcement to see how far the potential threats go.
"Fort Rucker is a pretty friendly community, but there are extremist groups out there and outside threats that we deal with," said the antiterrorism officer. "We take in all accounts of our reporting avenues seriously."
iSalute is another program that provides information regarding antiterrorism disseminated to Soldiers -- active-duty, National Guard and Reserve -- through the chain of command in order to educate them on antiterrorism and keep up their vigilance.
"We provide several different avenues to get the reporting in because antiterrorism is exactly that -- prevention," said Greenawalt. "Making people aware of these programs and what's out there for them to report empowers us and makes us more able to keep the community safer."
Fort Rucker's antiterrorism officer also work with a myriad of law enforcement agencies, to include local law enforcement, as well as FBI, CIA, Naval Criminal Investigative Services and National Security Agency, he added.
"We communicate with them within a five-state region to stay on top of all the threats that are out there," he said.
There are people who might believe that awareness and vigilance are not their responsibility, but Greenawalt urges them to understand that they are the first line of defense, and reminds that prevention is the key to antiterrorism.
"People should be aware because the threats are out there, as evident from the 9/11 attacks," he said. "We've had many threats that were neutralized because of programs like iWatch and the communication between local law enforcement.
"If it wasn't for someone's actions, we wouldn't have not known that there were real threats in some occurrences -- ignorance is not bliss, especially not in the case of terrorism," he continued.
"It's a very stressful world we live in right now, and with that there are a lot of vulnerabilities out there, and there are people looking to exploit those vulnerabilities."
Terrorism is not only about foreign threats, added the antiterrorism officer.
"Most foreign threats at the national and local level, we've got a pretty good handle on," he said. "It's the homegrown violent extremists and the lone-wolf scenarios that we need extra help on.
"It might be the guy sitting next to you at the store who decides to snap one day and bring that violence onto post," said Greenawalt. "It's our job to work with local law enforcement and try to keep that away as much as we possibly can."
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