Interim recommendations approved from Fort Hood shootings

By Mark Olinger, The Examiner

The Department of Defense announced on April 15, near-term actions to address gaps and deficiencies in personnel policies, force protection measures, emergency response, mass casualty preparedness and support to health care providers identified by the Department of Defense Independent Review panel. This announcement is a follow-up on the recommendations made by the panel chaired by former Secretary of the Army Togo D. West, Jr., and former Chief of Naval Operations retired Admiral Vern Clark, in the aftermath of the shootings at Fort Hood, Texas on November 5, 2009.

The department’s follow-on review, which is headed by Assistant Secretary of Defense for Homeland Defense and Americas’ Security Affairs Paul Stockton, will recommend to Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates what actions should be taken on the remaining recommendations in June.

Included in the actions to be taken in the near-term are expand the pilot program to fully deploy eGuardian as the Department of Defense-wide force protection threat reporting system to handle suspicious incident activities. The eGuardian system, which is FBI-owned and maintained, will safeguard civil liberties, while enabling information sharing among Federal, State, local, and tribal law enforcement partners, including interagency fusion centers.

Complete the deployment of the Law Enforcement Defense Data Exchange system (D-DEx) allowing all Department of Defense law enforcement agencies to share criminal investigation as well as other law enforcement data as appropriate. D-DEx will be a consolidated database to enable organizations across the department to query, retrieve, and post criminal investigation and law enforcement data in a single repository.

Establish the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Homeland Defense and Americas’ Security Affairs as the Department of Defense lead for the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force program.

Strengthen Department of Defense’s antiterrorism training program by incorporating lessons learned from the Fort Hood incident, Department of Homeland Security best practices on workplace violence, and civilian law enforcement active shooter awareness training.

Fort Hood supports multiple units, the III Corps headquarters and a mobilization mission. The fort also meets the training and support requirements for smaller units and organizations, maintaining a vital defense force for the country. Located between Killeen and Copperas Cove it is approximately 60 miles north of the capital city of Austin, 50 miles south of Waco, 160 miles south of Dallas, and 150 miles north of San Antonio.