USASOC holds first ever ARSOF advanced protection course

By Sgt. 1st Class Thaddius S. Dawkins II, USASOC Public AffairsMay 8, 2015

USASOC holds first ever ARSOF advanced protection course
FORT BRAGG, N.C. -- USASOC Soldiers and civilians participated in USASOC G-34's (Protection) first-ever Army Special Operations Forces advanced protection class April 28-30. The training featured classes taught by several experts from across the secu... (Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL

FORT BRAGG, N.C. (USASOC News Service, May 8, 2015) -- USASOC G-34 (Protection) held three days of ARSOF advanced protection training for USASOC Soldiers and civilians April 28-30.

The training featured antiterrorism and personal security subject-matter-experts teaching classes over a variety of protection methods and techniques including; theory and design of closed-circuit television systems, effective lighting design and layout, video analytics, enterprise security system management systems and several other classes. The training concluded with a stateside and deployed case study so the students could put what they learned to use.

"When I was running the weapons committee, we used to bring in manufacturers all the time to train on what was new," said Patrick D. Snyder, Chief of USASOAC G-34. "It would keep the instructors up, keep the students up and show them not just the old stuff we were teaching, but what was new, what was cutting edge. So between the guys in the office, we said 'let's do this.' One thing lead to another and with a whole lot of work we managed to pull this together and bring in the different organizations and different vendors to teach and show us the newest technologies."

Snyder said the training brought together nearly 45 attendees from 19 organizations across the USASOC footprint. He was able to organize the training at extremely low cost to USASOC.

"The only cost USASOC was responsible for were travel costs," he said. "The guys teaching the class represent vendors USASOC already has contracts with, so they were able to make the trip to Fort Bragg and teach these classes to our people."

Monique J. Hampton, USASOC G-2 security operations division chief, attended the training and believes it's extremely important for other USASOC security personnel to do the same in the future.

"The training benefits the ARSOF community by ensuring that antiterrorism officers, security representatives and security guards continue synchronized efforts to protect our personnel, facilities and information," she said. "I would highly recommend USASOC decision makers in the security field to attend this course."

As for the future of ARSOF advanced protection training, Snyder said he hopes it's something his office can organize every couple of years. He also explained how the class could cut down on USASOC's security costs in the future.

"We get some requests that are completely ludicrous," he said. "We recently received a request from one of our Fort Bragg units. They wanted to spend $256,000. We went down and looked at what they really needed; it was more like $56,000. That $200,000 just didn't make sense. Once we broke it down, showed them how to do it and had them take a look at it, instead of building something, a lot of what they needed to be done could be completed by planting trees and bushes to cover the area. We can do a lot of cost cutting without failing to meet the security goals and requirements of the unit. They just didn't understand how to apply things correctly. With this training, we want to teach that."

Along with the possibility of saving USASOC money on future security expenditures, Snyder said he believes the training is necessary in order for security experts to stay up-to-date on the ever changing security industry technology.

"The only thing that changes faster than the technology to counter the threat is the threat countering the technology," he said.

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