National Citizen Corps Conference Vice Admiral Conrad C. Lautenbacher, Jr NOAA Administrator July 29, 2003 Thanks to Under Secretary Brown for invitation, honor to partner with Citizen Corps, EPA and Dept of Education. Thank you Mr. Under Secretary for your kind words. I am proud to represent NOAA on this important day. It is an honor for us to partner with such a dynamic organization as the Citizen Corps. NOAA is in elite company as we join the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Education in association with the Citizen Corps. Partnership with the Citizen Corps fits with NOAA’s core mission. We plan to leverage our activities with other organizations. I should add that the NOAA Weather Radio program and the Storm Ready Program are great fits with the Citizen Corps mission. This association is a perfect fit for NOAA because the protection of life and property is at the core of NOAA’s mission. NOAA conducts strategic research and gathers data about the global oceans, atmosphere, space and sun in order to and apply this knowledge to an operational science and service mission that touches the lives of all Americans. Our association with the local Citizen Corps Councils will facilitate this mission by developing and enhancing our coordination with other groups in the private and public sector to leverage expertise and knowledge. To expand life saving programs like the NWS’ Storm Ready Program. Who can forget the photographs of the wrecked cars a tornado left in the theater seats in Van Wert Ohio last November. Seats that only minutes before were filled by children and their parents. Because Van Wert was a Storm Ready Community the theater manager received a warning from NOAA’s National Weather Service (NWS) and evacuated the theater a half hour before the tornado struck. This warning was received over the NOAA Weather Radio network. This network broadcasts weather and other hazard warnings, watches, forecasts and post event information 24 hours a day issued by this Nation’s sole official voice for weather warnings, the NWS. There are many examples for volunteer opportunities in our National Weather Service, National Ocean Service, and NOAA Fisheries programs. Through our partnership with the Citizen Corps NOAA will be able to provide enhanced opportunities for volunteers in the NWS’ Cooperative Observer and severe storm spotter network as well as the volunteers in NOAA’s Climate Monitoring and Diagnostics Laboratory’s air sampling network program. In addition, NOAA’s Ocean Service’s U.S. Power Squadrons will have more opportunities to aid their fellow citizens with the work they do with NOAA’s Office of Coast Survey. The evolving capability of the NOAA Fisheries Vessel Monitoring System can serve as a vital tool for marine enforcement and homeland security needs in that it can be used to track suspicious vessels at sea. We are ready to work with the Citizen Corps and look forward to a long association. Across the nation from the warning coordination meteorologists at our weather forecast offices to my office here in Washington, NOAA is at the ready to work with the Citizen Corps and your associated partners to protect our Nation against threats, natural or human made. I look forward to a long and rewarding association between NOAA, the Citizen Corps, and our other partners. Thank you very much for your invitation to join you today and your wonderful hospitality.
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