Know your role Published May 10, 2010 By Col. Kimerlee Conner 21st Mission Support Group commander PETERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Colo. -- Every real world and exercise event provides an opportunity to better prepare our population at large for worst case scenarios -- they are not tailored just for emergency responders because they effect you. In addition to a surge in deployments, the last Condor Crest exercise showcased not only the capability of our first responders, but of every Airman. Perhaps, you were caught within a secure cordon -- what did you do? Was it the right thing to do? For Morgan Stanley's top executive, Robert Scott, who helped his company survive the heavy toll from Sept. 11, 2001, one leadership lesson is particularly clear, "If you wait for a crisis to begin to lead, it's too late." Mr. Scott said that 32 years on Wall Street did little to prepare him for the terrorist attacks. Largely due to disaster contingency plans and the actions of well-trained managers, Morgan Stanley, the largest tenant in the World Trade Center, came through the disaster with relatively little loss of life. In the 20 minutes between the first and second plane crashes, Morgan Stanley had implemented an evacuation plan which had been put into place after the 1993 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center. Most of the Morgan Stanley employees made it off the high floors before the second plane hit. Because of the evacuation plan and effective employee drills, the death toll of Morgan Stanley's 3,700 employees who worked in the World Trade Center was limited to six people. Why was Morgan Stanley so comparatively fortunate? It certainly was not luck; it was because their employees knew exactly what they were supposed to do. Rick Rescorla, the vice president for security, pressed the company to conduct regular drills even though some employees grumbled and joked about them. Every few months, 3,700 employees in the South Tower would be marched, with Rescorla at the bullhorn, down the long winding stairwell of one of the world's highest skyscrapers and out of the building, just for practice. On Sept. 11, 2001, Rescorla returned to one of the towers because three employees were missing. Although he died when the building collapsed a short time later, he is credited with saving nearly all of the 3,700 employees because he ensured people knew their role in such a contingency. The shootings at Fort Hood, Texas, indicate, albeit on a smaller scale than the 9/11 attacks, that a threat can be proportionately devastating and as realistic on a military installation. An active shooter is generally described as an individual(s) actively engaged in killing people in a confined and populated area. Typically, there is no pattern or method to the selection of their victims. While our first responders are trained to address active shooter threats and our protocols are documented in base plans, it is important to know your own role, and how you would personally respond to these incidents. Survival is a natural instinct and when it is coupled with the right tools, the chances of surviving an active shooter event increase dramatically. It does not matter if it is a terrorist attack, an active shooter event, or a natural disaster; none of us are immune. We are all susceptible to being casualties. We regularly conduct exercises to practice our ability to survive when confronted with such situations. Surely many of you have grumbled and joked, just like the employees of Morgan Stanley, when you have had to participate in such exercises. I can assure you that the Morgan Stanley employees no longer make light of practicing -- they know it can and did save their lives. As we conduct base exercises, I encourage all of you to know what your role is in each scenario and to participate with the urgency you would as though it were real. While many may view them as an inconvenience, they have a purpose, and that purpose is survival; we all have an interest in that. Our military installations have proven to be targets of terrorists and infiltrators with the latest example resulting in 13 deaths at Fort Hood. We perform in crisis the same way we practice. How we play out these scenarios in Condor Crest and other exercises could save lives. Know your role.