News

Mass notification comes through loud and clear

  • Published
  • By Jenny Gordon
  • 78th Air Base Wing Public Affairs
ROBINS AIR FORCE BASE, Ga. --  Ever wonder about the voices you hear echoing loudly across Robins? Or who is responsible for those pop-up desktop messages that appear from the corner of your computer when bad weather is approaching?

Those notifications are courtesy of the hard-working professionals of the 78th Air Base Wing Command Post, located in the Edenfield Command and Control Center in Bldg. 906.

It's manned 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.

The reason is the importance of anytime communication - such as in the event of an emergency situation or weather alert which can take place day or night.

"We are the first to get the base in the right security posture, as well as being the voice of the commander," said Sgt. Derrick Taylor, an emergency action controller, who has been at Robins almost four years. "We never close."

Emergency Mass Notification System weather-related information can be relayed at a moment's notice via the "giant voice" that base personnel hear while at work, or on a screen that emerges on your computer, usually with wind, tornado or lightning (within five miles) alerts. In emergencies, information can include taking cover in the case of an active shooter on base.

"We receive those messages and then process them in a quick fashion," said Staff Sgt. Meranda Lee, at Robins for two years.

Incidentally, it's the person who is seated closest to the alert system who usually projects the giant voice heard over public address towers across Robins, according to Taylor.

Just as controllers learned in tech school, he noted, "We have to say it - slow and loud - so the base populace can understand."

Other notifications include a weekly Wednesday testing of sirens, operational readiness exercise announcements and others as needed.

Depending on the season, weather can be the most common notification, and base exercises are also frequent.

Linked by phone networks, computers and other alert systems, controllers, usually a minimum of two on shift, have a variety of methods at their disposal to dispatch what the rest of us need to know and do when it comes to safety and information.