Preparing Federal Coordinating Officers (FCOs) to Operate in Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear (CBRN) Environments

Abstract

In this thesis the Federal Emergency Management Agency's (FEMA) Federal Coordinating Officer (FCO) function is examined as it relates to Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear (CBRN) operations. It is suggested that targeted changes can be made to ensure the FCOs are better prepared to manage the additional complexities of a CBRN environment. The changes include addressing the FCOs from the systems approach-internally to improve the FCO personal and professional development; external organizational design to improve the FCO's cross-jurisdictional operating environment; and agency support changes to provide the FCOs with additional CBRN staffing expertise to aid in managing the complexity. If the recommendations herein are adopted, the critical command and control function of the FCO in a CBRN environment will be substantially enhanced and the readiness level of the federal response system greatly improved.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Dec 01, 2008
Accession Number
ADA493907

Entities

People

  • Tony Russell

Organizations

  • Naval Postgraduate School

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Biomedical
  • C4I
  • Human Systems

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Force
  • Command And Control
  • Contingency Operations (Military)
  • Department Of Homeland Security
  • Disasters
  • Emergency Response
  • Health Services
  • Homeland Security
  • Lessons Learned
  • Military Science
  • National Security
  • Organizational Structure
  • Personnel Management
  • Professional Development
  • United States Government
  • United States Northern Command
  • Warfare

Readers

  • Aviation Safety Risk Assessment.
  • Emergency Management and Homeland Security.
  • Sensor Fusion and Tracking Systems.

Technology Areas

  • Fully Networked C3
  • Fully Networked C3 - Command and Control