On the 3rd Monday of February in the United States, our country takes a day to reflect. To remember, and acknowledge and to honor our American Presidents.
It is a federal holiday specifically honoring George Washington, who led the Continental Army to victory in the American Revolutionary War, presided at the Constitutional Convention of 1787, and was the first president of the United States.
Teachers in schools may focus on student projects around our US Presidents and the dawn of our Republic. A form of government in which “supreme power is held by the people and their elected representatives”.
This day of pause, celebration or study of history shall also include a tribute to all of our “First Responders” across our great nation. Those men and women on the front lines of our democracy that are always on watch. Those who are in action each day, to defend our freedom and our Republic from disasters and evil.
As the pace of the economy across the globe includes new inventions, new technology and new laws; our governments must work in synchronized step with all of our First Responders.
Those individuals who are consistently scanning the horizon, analyzing dashboards of continuous streams of new sensor data, researching the changes in our respective environments and Areas of Responsibility (AOR) to better understand.
Yet these individuals require more. The First Responders who 24 hours x 365 days are continuously Understanding, Making Decisions and Acting in order to address the continuous integrity and constant peace of our great nation, require more.
"Our U.S. First Responders require a continuous set of resources, innovative new tools and training to apply the leading solutions for the United States security, response and resilience. From Liberty Crossing to NORAD. From Pennsylvania Ave to Pacific Coast Highway.
How might a small group of First Responders gather in a particular geographic area of our country to research, develop and deliver new valuable innovations to protect our Republic?"
How might we include industry and academia in an acceleration of information exchange and testing of new prototypes?
One good example is the Advanced Naval Technology Exercise (ANTX) that is again taking place primarily in Southern California over the next six months. Activities will focus on the examination of capabilities by public and private sector stakeholders in the following areas:
- Critical infrastructure security, threat mitigation, and incident response
- In-service engineering, maintenance, and sustainment of surface fleet and expeditionary combat systems
- Port and maritime domain awareness, data fusion, and decision support
- Augmented and virtual reality modeling, simulation, and digital engineering
- Unmanned systems applications, implementation, and countermeasures
Yet whether we are creating new learning environments for our First Responders on Land, Sea, Space and Cyber domains, we shall always remember.
On this Presidents Day 2022, Americans who are true First Responders will continuously seek out new opportunities to learn more.
They will collaborate to test and innovate their own new ideas and inventions to preserve our Republic. To make their own neighborhood even more safe and secure.
They will act with bravery and their own fortitude, just as George Washington did and all those who have followed him…
