Taking band students from James Clemens High School to London to march in a New Year's Day parade involves a lot of planning, especially when it comes to ensuring a safe and secure trip.
Toward that end, three parents of James Clemens band members who work at the Aviation and Missile Command -- Barbie Baugh, Maureen Trainor and Pete Alampi -- reached out to the Army's top Operations Security officer to provide a safety briefing for the band students, their parents and their chaperones.
That top Army OPSEC officer just happens to be AMCOM OPSEC officer Paul Quintel.
"Providing Operations Security briefings to AMCOM and Team Redstone employees as well as in the community is something I am passionate about and committed to doing," Quintel said. "Our world -- and especially when traveling internationally -- comes with a lot of threats to our safety. But, if we take the right precautions, we can minimize or eliminate those threats."
Quintel presented a security briefing to about 200 students, parents and chaperones in early December.
Quintel fashioned his briefing for the James Clemens students, using the slogan found on the school's band FaceBook page "Keep Calm and Be The Example," which plays on British "Keep Calm" phrase from World War II.
In today's instant news culture where cell phone communications, public postings of photos on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram are the norm, Quintel emphasized that the students needed to always be aware of their surroundings, to not bring attention to themselves as American students and to limit public postings of their activities.
"We don't need to live in a world of convenience when it comes to security," Quintel said. "As travelers, I wanted to make them more aware of the things they should do to better protect themselves when traveling overseas."
With cell phones, Quintel advised the students to use strong passwords for access and to remove their automatic logins for their social media and other website. On Facebook, he advised them to turn off their tagging notifications and set their privacy settings at "Friends Only." He encouraged them to learn about the country they were traveling to by visiting the U.S. State Department's webpage (http://travel.state.gov) and to know the location of the U.S. embassy in London.
He advised the students not to wear school jackets or clothing with USA logos. He also emphasized that the students should always stay in groups and to ensure that their chaperones were aware of their activities. Among other security tips, Quintel advised them to be aware of their surroundings, be on the lookout for thieves, to not to leave their bags unattended in public places, to only use licensed taxis and to use only automatic teller machines located inside a bank branch.
"A lot of information I provided should be practiced on a regular basis, but especially when traveling," Quintel said.
Alampi, a parent of a James Clemens senior and who also went on the London trip, said he witnessed students following Quintel's advice. That was a relief to him and other parents who were concerned about their teenagers moving around in a city of 8.8 million people.
"The students really made sure to stay in their small groups when they were seeing the sites," Alampi said.
"They moved around usually in groups of six. They also did not do things or wear things that would help a stranger figure out where they were from. There was one school in London from Virginia and you could identify them because they were always wearing their school colors. Our students didn't do anything that made them stand out. They made efforts to blend in."
The students visited Greenwich, Hampton Court, Windsor Castle and the Tower of London, they took a bus tour on which they saw Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abby and St. Paul's Cathedral. They also performed in a concert at the historic Cadogan Hall.
And, they performed for about 550,000 spectators during London's New Year's Day Parade, which went from Piccadilly Street through Piccadilly Circus down Regent Street through Trafalgar Square, ending up on Whitehall Lane and including passing 10 Downing Street and the Houses of Parliament.
Even with taking safety precautions, the crowded city of London did present challenges for the students and their chaperones.
"It is easy to get separated in London crowds," Alampi said.
And the students, being teenagers, still did a lot of posting on Facebook, but Alampi said the postings did not provide a lot of information about where they were.
"You can't stop kids of posting on Facebook or other public forums. But you can mitigate it a little bit and encourage them to keep their safety in mind when making their posts," Quintel said.
Quintel's briefing provided parents with confidence that safety and security would remain a top concern throughout the trip.
"Parents were thankful for the briefing," Alampi said.
"As a parent, you can tell kids about safety over and over again. But when it comes from somebody else -- somebody who makes it his business to ensure the safety and security of government employees -- they are more apt to listen," Quintel said.
"The school took extra steps to cover all the bases to make sure the students stayed safe and were well versed in what to expect."
Any AMCOM employee who is planning an overseas trip or who is involved with a school group planning international travel can request a security briefing by calling Quintel at 313-3867.
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