This year has been one of the worst on record for wildfire response operations and crews around the globe. It started in Australia at the very beginning of the year, with brushfires that were so devastating and destructive that they were headline news on every continent, burnt approximately 46 million

Going off the grid takes a combination of courage, planning, and training. Even in the best of situations with the most prepared teams, things can often go from adventure to danger. Fortunately, there are organizations that are prepared to respond to crises in the last mile at a moment’s notice.

It’s almost impossible to deny the fact that “100-year storms” are happening almost every disaster season. And now in the midst of an unprecedented pandemic, emergency management agencies are all too accustomed to preparing for the worst. But emergency response isn’t the same everywhere. Emergency situations in some geographies and

Former Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Craig Fugate recently published a whitepaper on disaster response communications in the COVID-19 era. During his career at FEMA, Fugate heralded the use of mobile technology and social media as more and more communities — and their first responders — relied on wireless cellular

The military is perpetually innovating new ways to increase soldier survivability and lethality. It’s what drives much of their investment into new military platforms, weapons systems, and other tools for the warfighter. And one of the areas where the military is focusing much of its efforts is on outfitting what

In 2014, I was serving as the Senior Strategic Homeland Security Planner for the Brazos Valley Region in East Texas, and tasked with coordinating the Ebola response in the 7,320-square-miles surrounding the Bryan-College Station metropolitan area. Acting as a federal liaison between hospitals, public safety, and state government officials, many

The global COVID-19 pandemic has left many state and local governments, hospitals and first responders scrambling to find the medical equipment, hospital beds and resources they need to keep up with the incredible influx of sick patients. With so many new cases and hospitalizations, these organizations are turning to temporary

In my last article on The Last Mile, I looked at the unique communications challenges that exist at the northern border between the U.S. and Canada, which is increasingly important right now with the border closed due to the coronavirus pandemic. But it’s not the only border in need of

Earlier this month, in an attempt to slow the spread of the COVID-19, the United States and Canada took the unprecedented step of shutting down the border between the two countries. While this sounds like a reasonable and rational step towards stemming the spread of a disease that has —

Having served in the United States Air Force as a Joint Terminal Attack Controller (JTAC), I understand the importance of situational awareness for conventional and special operations forces missions. During my twenty years of service, I contributed to countless missions in austere environments attached to U.S. and coalition ground forces,