Marines in Alpha and Bravo companies and civilians working aboard Henderson Hall have until Sept. 15 to validate their contact information in a new emergency mass notification system for Headquarters and Service Battalion, Headquarters Marine Corps, Henderson Hall.
The system is expected to improve the command's ability to release timely, accurate information to Marines and civilians assigned to the command.
Col. Andrew M. Regan, battalion commander, stated that the notification system would be used during emergency events such as active shooter situations, man-made and natural disasters, life-threatening weather, force protection condition changes and more.
"The ability to rapidly share information that enables personnel to respond to emergency events is essential," Regan said in a letter of instruction to H&S Battalion personnel. "To that end, I have directed the implementation of an emergency mass notification program to ensure potentially affected personnel are provided timely, accurate and actionable information regarding emerging threats and situations whether personnel are at work, at home or otherwise dispersed."
The new emergency notification system will improve communication through a variety of means, which is part of a larger effort to make notification and response faster throughout the region, said Maj. Khari Wright, battalion operations officer.
"It can be a text message," he said. "It can be an email. It can be a phone call to either a work, home or cell phone. It all depends on what information we have for the users."
Leaders will decide which devices personnel should receive specific notifications on, and should also carefully consider the contents of the message, he said.
"There's a leadership decision that has to be made; is this relevant to my population? How relevant is it? What do I want to tell them about it? Do I want to tell them to avoid the area or do I want to tell them that it's going on but there should be no impact to you?" he said. "It's not necessarily automatic."
Marines can verify their contact information by logging onto Marine Online (MOL), navigating to the "Personal Info" tab, scrolling to the "Personal Updates" section and clicking on the "Contact Information" link. They will need to make sure the work phone, mobile phone, home phone, preferred number to receive text messages, work email and personal email sections are all up to date.
Civilians can validate their information by logging onto the Total Workforce Management Services (TWMS) website, navigating to the "Self Service" page, clicking the "Personal/Recall Information" link and updating the information as required.
In late September, a test message will be released on the system to gauge the ability of the target population to respond in a timely manner. Tests will then be conducted quarterly, battalion officials said.
Pentagram Staff Writer Guv Callahan can be reached at wcallahan@dcmilitary.com.
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