Military replaces ‘Threatcon’ with ‘FPCON’ to designate threat
alerts on bases
By Wayne Specht, Misawa
bureau chief
Wayne Specht / Stars and Stripes
Signs on military bases, like this one at Misawa Air Base, Japan, will be changed soon,
relegating "threatcon" to history in favor of "FPCON," force
protection conditions, as part of a DOD realignment of security terminology. |
MISAWA AIR BASE, Japan — “Threatcon” is being removed
from the military’s vocabulary.
Used to announce degrees of heightened threat awareness on military
bases, the term has been discarded as the Defense Department updates its protective
measures.
“This change is effective immediately,” said Maj. Melvin
Allen of the Pentagon office of Security Forces in an Air Force Web site story released
Friday.
It is being replaced with “FPCON,” to signify “force
protection condition” levels. Allen said the condition levels — normal, alpha,
bravo, charlie and delta — will remain.
Air Force officials said the USS Cole Commission recommended the name
change to avoid confusion with the term “Threat Level,” used to quantify the
terrorist level of threat on a country-by-country basis. Threat level terms are classified
as low, moderate, significant and high.
The Defense Department, however, is updating the measures associated
with the protective levels, and will release them within the next few months.
The conditions are used to describe progressive levels of protective
measures taken in response to terrorist threats to U.S. military facilities and people
around the world.
“The challenge will be educating people to recognize FPCON as
they do threatcon,” Allen said. Installations routinely post their threatcon status
at entry control points and building entrances. “These will all be changed to read
FPCON,” Allen said.
A Misawa spokesman said work orders have been placed to change signs
at the three main base gates. How soon drivers will see the new wording depends on the
workload of the sign shop, said Senior Airman Todd Lopez.
A Misawa Security Forces specialist said force protection is the new
watchword that is gaining prominence.
“There are no additional measures to be taken with the
implementation of the new term (at this time). The definitions are all the same,”
said Master Sgt. Champion Johnson, 35th Security Forces Squadron. “We now have
terminology that is more clear to everybody and reflects our emphasis … force
protection of our people and resources.”
Allen said another change to the field involves classification of the
Antiterrorism Plan and FPCON measures.
To keep awareness at the forefront, level 1 antiterrorism awareness
training is now a yearly requirement for all active-duty military, regardless of duty
station.
“Level 1 training is also now required annually for all (Defense
Department) personnel who are based overseas or eligible for overseas deployment,”
Allen said. “Previously, training was only required within six months of deploying or
(making a permanent change of station move) overseas.”
Force protection at Misawa Air Base in northern Honshu will be
getting a serious look over in the next several months, Brig. Gen. Chip Utterback,
commander of Misawa’s 35th Fighter Wing, is telling base residents.
“Although we’ve dramatically strengthened force protection
measures and procedures since the attack against Khobar Towers (in Saudi Arabia) in
’96, it’s easy to get complacent,” Utterback said in his weekly
Commander’s Update
He said antiterrorism measures will include random ID card checks and
practice evacuations of apartment towers.
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