Tell us what you see

"There are 6 billion people in the world. At any given moment some of them are up to no good."
-- Former Secretary of State George Schultz 


Since that unforgettable day in September 2001, all our lives have changed. Initially, the change was profound. Some couldn't sleep due to constant worry about what was next. Others answered a call to duty. Those of us serving in the military knew that nothing would ever be the same. We finally came face to face with a new enemy but the enemy was hard to identify -- after all, how do you picture an ideology? Military leaders and policy makers identified the need to mitigate the effects of this enemy's tactics. Anti-terrorism and force protection measures came to the forefront of our lives. Information from the public, at large, and our own military personnel flowed freely into call centers throughout the nation. Unfortunately, nearly seven years later, the information flow has slowed. 

The American military machine must change to keep up with the enemies' changing tactics. Decades of Cold War planning and ideals need to be shifted to counter this threat. In a 1989 U.S. Marine Corp Gazette article titled "The Changing Face of War: Into the Fourth Generation," the shift is described this way: "Whoever is first to recognize, understand and implement a generational change can gain a decisive advantage. Conversely, a nation that is slow to adapt to generational change opens itself to catastrophic defeat." 

The air and space power combat capability provided by Malmstrom is vital to support national and international political objectives. This new enemy -- or any of the past -- cannot compete with this capability in the air or space. Our problem is the time when these assets are on the ground. This is where ALL of you come in. 

The protection of our resources depends on your assistance with letting someone know what it is that you are seeing around our resources. Remember, Security Forces deliver capabilities to defeat security threats; crime, espionage/surveillance, 

sabotage/subversion, civil unrest, terrorism and unconventional warfare. However, we need your assistance in detecting these threats. Security Forces operates with a battle cry of "find, fix and engagement" of threats. We cannot be all places at all times; therefore, we need your help to Find the enemy. To paraphrase Sun Tzu: "Know yourself and your enemy and you will be successful in every battle." 

Team Malmstrom has a constant flow of personnel traveling throughout our missile complex and around the Great Falls area. This equates to hundreds of eyes looking out for the resources vital to national objectives. If, for example, you see an out of place vehicle around a launch facility, let someone know. If you see someone taking pictures outside the front gate, let someone know. If you hear something downtown that concerns you, let someone know. When you see it first, it allows us to understand and act first to defeat the enemies' plan rather than to wait and have to defeat their forces. The sooner we can act, the less time they have to prepare. Call Missile Security Control at 731-6848 or 731-6850 for actions in the missile complex. Call the Security Forces desk at 731-3895 for actions on Malmstrom, or contact your individual control center. Just let someone know.

"All the high-tech weapons in the world will not transform the US armed forces unless we also transform the way that we think, the way we train, the way we exercise and the way we fight"
-- Secretary Rumsfeld's speech at the National Defense University on January 31, 2002