I was a Command & Control Specialist for 24 years in the USAF. Most of that time I was as a member of Two Man Emergency Actions Team in Command Post/Command Centers. I recall events where alert messages were accidently upchanneled all the way to the situation room in the White House because a controller failed to enter “Exercise Exercise Exercise” in the message header/preamble. It surprises me that Hawaii EA procedures allow a single individual the ability to transmit an alert message. I would suggest that management is as much or more at fault for failing to see the need for a second individual to confirm that the action being taken is appropriate.
As part of it, a recording was played through a speakerphone at the State Warning Point which included the words ‘this is not a drill’.
That was not meant to be played but it was played alongside the drill recording which said ‘exercise’ six times.
The employee said he did not hear ‘exercise’ and only focused on ‘this is not a drill’ so pushed the button to send out the alert.
Can’t fire the first one,why the hell would I want to hire another one?