Q & A with Rear Adm. Kendall L. Card Director, Command Control Systems NORAD-USNORTHCOM J6

CHIPS, Jan-March, 2008

In California with the burning wildfires, we sent C-130s with massive equipment--every one of those houses is precious--and everyone inside those houses is precious. We are looking to save lives and mitigate human suffering through more efficient and effective communications systems--from the people on the ground--to the local responders who are the true heroes.

At NORAD and NORTHCOM, we monitor the nation. When I talk to folks out on the road, they really don't understand the full breadth of what we do. We monitor the nation in all five domains: air, land, sea, space and cyber intrusions or problems.

NORAD is monitoring everything in outer space that moves, anything that might pose an issue for a shuttle or a space station or might leave the atmosphere and come back down to hit Earth. They are tracking thousands of pieces that are moving around to see if they pose danger to anyone as they reenter. That's the space piece.

We're looking at the sea piece, at ships, people and cargo around the world.

If you look at the air piece, we monitor all the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) traffic in the U.S., all the NAV Canada air traffic and anything that's coming within our area of responsibility, tracking not individual people but individual instances or circumstances that might be happening on those aircraft.

If you look at the land domain, we monitor any power panel that blows up in a subway system because it is faulty, any truck that tips over with hazardous materials and any white powder incidents in any city or state. If it might have an impact on the average American or Canadian, we are monitoring it. In 99 percent of the cases, we don't become involved because local and state agencies or law enforcement officials can take care of those problems.

We are there to ensure that if they need some capability that they don't have we can provide it. We act in cooperation with 150 operation centers throughout our area of responsibility every minute of every day and track all the things that they are tracking.

It is hard to convey that message to all the folks in our AOR, Americans and Canadians, that there are many hard working people tracking all these things so they are safe.

CHIPS: It is hard to convey because the notion of it is just immense.

Rear Adm. Card: You have to do it and still protect individual rights of all those citizens.

CHIPS: I entered your name on Google and saw that your hometown of Fort Stockton, Texas, is very proud of you--and rightfully so!

Rear Adm. Card: It's very humbling to go back home. People are appreciative of what our services do for them. Having the opportunity to go through the ranks and the good fortune to be at the right place at the right time a few times in my career, for me, it is very humbling.

They certainly have me on a pedestal much higher than I deserve to be. The whole town goes out of their way to make me feel like I am a hero every time I am in town.

I try to focus on who the true heroes are in Afghanistan and Iraq because they are the people doing the hard work.