FORT SILL, Okla. (Jan. 31, 2019) -- Fort Sill Garrison Commander Col. Don King remains confident that a new program to make access to post quicker and easier will yield positive results.
Effective Feb. 1, the post will institute a Trusted Traveler Program to expedite access to the installation for Department of Defense (DoD) card holders and authorized guests.
"We're starting a test pilot. It will go for about six months," King said. "For us it's important because it makes the post more accessible to our Soldiers, family members, DoD civilians, and the community of Lawton."
Officials also hope to address traffic issues and reduce the time it takes to get through the gates, he said.
The new policy will be in effect from 5 a.m. to 10 p.m. seven days a week. After 10 p.m. and before 5 a.m. there will be 100 percent ID checks at the gates.
Trusted Travelers will be allowed to sponsor and escort up to 14 individuals onto post aboard a single, non-commercial vehicle. It will not be necessary for them to go to the Visitor Control Center to get permission first.
Trusted Traveler has already been introduced at other military installations around the country, the garrison commander confirmed. Fort Riley, Kan., has it, but Fort Sill's version will differ in one respect. Here, military dependents aged 16 and over qualify to serve as sponsors for visitors along with service members, their spouses, retired uniformed service members and their spouses, and DoD employees with a Common Access Card.
King said military dependents of driving age were included because the post has high school students who go back and forth for their activities, and this makes the post more accessible for them and their friends who are working on projects together.
Eligible ID card holders riding in the vehicle as a passenger can also sponsor visitors.
Those who cannot sponsor visitors include contractors whose DoD ID card has a green stripe and those who use other passes, such as installation passes or U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs passes, to get on post.
King sees this as a good opportunity to let the community see what Fort Sill has. By its very nature, being a training grounds for the Army as a whole, Fort Sill is a good recruiting tool -- "especially (for) the young men and women who are looking at their future and what they want to do."
"I know there are going to be some concerns about security, but the best thing about this installation is we have a great number of resources out here to protect our community and our resources out here. So, really no issue, as far as we're concerned, with protecting our community, just on the installation itself," King said.
He confirmed that the Trusted Traveler program went through an extensive vetting process before Maj. Gen. Wilson A. Shoffner, commanding general of the Fires Center of Excellence and Fort Sill, signed the policy order.
"We looked at many options, weighed many options, and I think basically what it came down to is providing the installation a solution that would allow easier and better access to the installation for our service members and for the community, but also a program that would allow us to maintain at least a certain level of security and safety for Fort Sill itself," the garrison commander said.
Trusted travelers will not need to get their guest list pre-approved before they come on post, King said.
"The individual who has the ID card that's sponsoring or escorting the individuals onto the installation will be the ones responsible for vetting (guests) as they come onto our post," he explained.
Certain rules must be followed:
The trusted traveler's guests can go to any non-restricted area when accompanied by their sponsor. They cannot go into restricted areas, either with or without their sponsor, nor can they go to any location on post unescorted by their sponsor.
King said they will be welcome at the Main Post Exchange and various Fort Sill Family and Morale, Welfare and Recreation (MWR) facilities, to include the Fort Sill Golf Course, Twin Oaks Bowling Center, the Patriot Club, and Lake Elmer Thomas Recreation Area (LETRA).
Trusted travelers cannot vouch for individuals with foreign passports or identification cards. These individuals must instead be cleared according to procedures set forth in Army Regulation 190-13, paragraph 8-2.
Trusted travelers are responsible for the actions of all occupants in their vehicle and for meeting all local security requirements for escort as established by Army regulations and requirements of the installation commander. In addition, trusted travelers are responsible for making sure the garrison commander has not barred their guests from the installation.
The installation commander, at his discretion, may suspend the Trusted Traveler Program based on local threat or may revoke individual trusted traveler privileges.
The program is not authorized for contractors, even those who have been issued a DoD ID; visitor card holders; volunteers; family care providers; tow truck drivers, or taxis/shuttles/Uber/Lyft drivers with a DoD ID card conducting those duties for commercial purposes.
The Trusted Traveler Program will be suspended whenever the post has to go to Force Protection Condition Charlie or Delta for security reasons.
This is a pilot program and will be re-evaluated by the Fort Sill commander after six months.
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