The Army has designated August as its “Antiterrorism Awareness Month.” We have to assume that Fort Bragg is and will continue to be, a potential terrorism target. However, as members of our Fort Bragg community, you should take comfort in knowing that professionals from various organizations here on post work together, diligently to keep us safe.

Examples of the work are the recent ricin scare and the suspicious package found near the courthouse last week demonstrated how quickly our first responders and other teammates react, secure an area and take follow-on actions to ensure our safety.

Besides the measures we take here on Fort Bragg, we also work closely with emergency services in the counties that surround us and at the state level, as well as with other federal agencies, such as Homeland Security, Federal Emergency Management Agency and the FBI. Recently we held our annual force protection exercise, Orbit Comet to ensure that not only our protection and detection measures are in place, but also our response measures. Over all, I can say the exercise reaffirmed our actions and plans, but we also learned lessons that will improve our effectiveness in the future

One of those lessons involves your role as residents of Fort Bragg and our local communities. We need you to be our first line of defense against terrorists.

I would like to encourage you to report behaviors and activities that make you feel uncomfortable or that do not look right. Some examples of this might be people taking pictures or making drawings of important, or crowded buildings, or of our access control points; people asking questions about our security forces or procedures and packages or boxes left alone in crowded areas.

 An easy way to remember what to report is, “If it doesn’t look right, report it; if it doesn’t smell right, report it; and if it doesn’t sound right, report it.”

So who should you report this to? Here on Fort Bragg that’s easy, just call 90-REACT, 907-3228. Your call will go directly to our operations center that is manned 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

If you don’t have a phone handy, tell Family members, a military police Soldier or someone who works wherever you happen to be, such as a clerk if you are at the Exchange or commissary.

It is always better to report suspicious activities than to refrain from doing so. Too many times we’ve all heard people say, “I knew something was wrong.” What they fail to say is, they did nothing about it.

There is an old saying when dealing with terrorists, “It is easier for a tiger to attack the sheep that stays alone and unprotected than it is to attack the one who is alert and with others.” We have to work together to be alert, strong and to make the terrorist go elsewhere.

You are our first line of defense against terrorists or others who mean us harm. It is your awareness that can help predict and prevent attacks before they happen.