FORT LEONARD WOOD, Mo. -- Emergencies don't just happen during duty hours. That's why Fort Leonard Wood's Installation and Emergency Operations Center has a Watch Office manned around the clock -- to inform commanders and the community of anything they need to know, right away.
Located in the main entrance of Hoge Hall, the I/EOC Watch Office serves as Fort Leonard Wood's information hub, especially after dark.
Watch officers receive and disseminate information on road closures, traffic accidents, severe weather, training accidents and hazardous material spills, to name a few. They also control the mass notification system, which includes 107 post sirens, email notifications and pop-up messages, which they can use to tell the community to take shelter or stay indoors.
"Information doesn't stop coming," said Becky Haas, chief of the I/EOC on Fort Leonard Wood, and distributing it quickly is key in keeping people safe.
"Information can save lives, if it gets out in a timely manner. Lack of information can cost lives," she said.
Since Soldiers are always training on Fort Leonard Wood, the installation relies on watch officers to relay messages about incidents or injuries that may occur, at all times of the day and night.
"Training is going on 24/7, all the time, whether it's in the field, out of the field," Haas said. "We do all of the incident reporting for all of the Soldiers, Marines (Sailors and Airmen). We manage the after-hours alert roster as well."
The weather can also present a threat at any time.
"We're tracking heat, fire danger, snow, cold weather, all those different things, and we're usually tracking it two to three days out. If severe weather is projected, then we're putting that out because Soldiers are always going into the field or traveling," Haas said.
The EF3 tornado that ripped through Fort Leonard Wood the morning of New Year's Eve in 2010 occurred on a training holiday.
I/EOC Watch Officer Anthony Sparks was on duty, and helped turned on the post sirens and send out alerts.
"It was pretty stressful, just trying to get everybody involved and trying to send the MPs where you need (them) and trying to talk to paramedics and get them where they need to go, but at the same time keeping all of the command involved," Sparks said. "Then, just monitoring hundreds of calls (from) every news agency from around the world -- just back-to-back phones ringing around the clock. It was a busy two or three days."
With the sirens blaring, watch officers don't take shelter with everyone else until the job is done.
"We stay in here and watch for it," Sparks said, which he admitted was a little scary. However, "it's kind of satisfying too -- you know you're doing something important," he said.
Tornados are on the extreme end. However, on a typical night shift from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m., watch officers still have a lot to do. They receive the post flag after the daily retreat ceremony. They sign all newcomers into the installation, and secure the Maneuver Support Center of Excellence complex.
They also answer phone calls from all over the world -- from Family members wondering how a certain Soldier is doing, to the Red Cross attempting to deliver a message, to National Guard units looking for a point of contact.
"You never know what kind of phone calls you're going to get, or why," said William Boies, a watch officer who works the night shift. "We do our best to try to get them an answer. You have to be kind of on your toes and think outside the box sometimes."
Many watch officers, like Boies, are retired military policemen, which he said prepared him for this job. "This is a security mission here … so that comes right in line with the military police mission."
It also prepared him to work strange hours.
"We're kind of used to shift work," he said. "We only need about four or five hours of sleep and then we're up and moving around."
Despite the different sleep schedule, Boies prefers being a watch officer to a more "typical" job. "I like that you never know what's going to happen," he said.
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