Many people enjoy being the first to know something, but when that something is an emergency, knowing right when it happens can keep you, your family, and co-workers safe.

For personnel who work at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, the best early warning system is the AtHoc wide-area alert network, or WAAN.

The AtHoc system is a communication lifeline to all registered personnel in the event of a disaster or emergency. If there is a need to change an installation's force protection condition, a weather event affects the operational status of a command, or even if an exercise is underway, AtHoc lets personnel know, both during and after work hours. Personnel are notified through a variety of measures to ensure greatest dissemination of important information.

"[We] currently have 19,535 personnel registered with AtHoc; roughly 86 percent of the installation's population," said Chris Beyer, NAS Patuxent River emergency manager. "Those not registered can send their information to elizabeth.griffin@navy.mil."

Beyer noted that while only service members, government employees, and government contractors can register for an AtHoc account, personnel are able to register up to four phone numbers and three emails on their account, which can include phone numbers and emails of family members.

"It is important to know that only one registered phone number can receive text alerts," said Beyer.

Personnel with NMCI access can also register by visiting the Commander, Naval Installations Command's WAAN page for Naval District Washington at http://www.cnic.navy.mil/regions/ndw/about/waan.html, or by clicking the purple globe icon at the bottom right of the desktop.

In addition to being good safety sense, registering with AtHoc is also a requirement for employees in the region. According to CNIC's WAAN webpage, both CNIC and Naval District Washington require all "military, civil service, contractor personnel with a NMCI user account and assigned to the NDW headquarters, subordinate installations, and tenant activities personnel to register their office email address and phone number, at minimum, in the NDW WAAN." The site also recommends registering personal emergency contact information, though it is not a requirement.

A common misconception among common access card-holders is that they are automatically registered for the AtHoc system, but this is not the case.

"Personnel are not automatically registered in the NDW WAAN, but must individually self-register," according to the WAAN page. "Because the NDW WAAN uses the NMCI domain, only NMCI account users are currently able to self-register. Self-registration is easily done with a common access card on a NMCI computer/laptop, using the AtHoc Self-service Client application. To register, or to update an AtHoc profile, the NMCI user needs to log in from a NMCI computer with the AtHoc Self-service Client application loaded to it."

The page also has a Q&A section for any questions personnel might have about the process, as well as downloadable instructions for self-service registration, and NMCI Help Desk numbers.

So regardless of where you stand in an organizational chart, it is your responsibility if you work at Pax River to register for AtHoc. After all, if an emergency happens, do you want to be the only who doesn't know?

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