Wireless Locks in Defense of Fort Lewis

Oct 1, 2002 12:00 PM, By Kate Henry

Shoring up 86,000 acres adjacent to Washington's pristine Puget Sound and midway between Tacoma and Olympia, Wash., sits U.S. Army post Fort Lewis, much as it has sat since its christening as Camp Lewis in honor of Clark's 1917 westward-adventuring companion.

Then the largest military post in the U.S, the camp boasted a main gate built of field stone and massive logs, welcoming visitors while recalling the rugged terrain and solemnity from which the camp had been raised.

Today at Fort Lewis, though on a new site, the gate still stands. Although the power of its message has not been diminished, the warmth of its welcome necessarily has been: Fort Lewis today serves more than 25,000 soldiers and civilian workers and supports more than 120,000 retirees and more than 29,000 family members living both on and off post, and no one may enter without first bearing the strictest scrutiny.

NEW DIRECTIVES

Because of its proximity to McChord Air Force Base, scheduled to be the home of the new C-17 transport fleet, and to Bangor Naval Base, Fort Lewis is considered the first line of choice for various types of attack, notes security manager of public works, William Cody, who has served the post's security mission for nearly 30 years.

Integral to the post's Public Works division is the lockshop Cody oversees — dedicated entirely to the locking technology that controls Fort Lewis' access points on its perimeter, at high-security buildings and within barracks.

Full-time electro-mechanical technicians are trained on an ongoing basis to troubleshoot and program a range of lock technologies and access systems, including mag stripe, proximity and ‘smart’ and biometric measures, and which work in various combinations throughout the post.

According to Cody: “It was April 1972 when the 9^th Infantry Division arrived here that the need for high-level security really began. In the following years, we moved to hardwired security at all facilities considered at risk of attack. In 1988, we installed our first stand-alone battery-powered locks, and by 1999, we had tested and installed a range of stand-alone door and safe locks. We're a product testing site for manufacturers, so we have technology on our doorstep before it hits the public,” he explains.

Following the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, access control at Fort Lewis took on heightened intensity. “The Army produced new regulations specifying anti-terrorism measures,” Cody explains, “and a lot of those included technological changes already made at posts such as ours. We are no longer an ‘open’ post — you cannot come on post without being thoroughly checked out, and that includes everything from proper identification to vehicle inspections to verification of the purpose of your visit.”

The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) is helping to ensure a high level of scrutiny, in part, through the wide-scale implementation of smart cards — multi-purpose Complete Access Cards (CAC) that control security, vending and finance functions and which will be used by all branches of the military.

“We were one of the first posts to implement the CAC card,” Cody says, “and you can't access a building or a computer function without it.”

The card includes an embedded biometric signature, performs ‘smart’ functions and employs proximity, mag stripe and bar code technologies. According to Cody, the DoD estimates that by October 2003, 1.4 million CACs will be issued worldwide to active army, army guard, reserve and civilian personnel as well as to eligible army contractors, and the total will reach 2.5 million once the card is also issued to family members and retirees.

NEW SOLUTIONS

The lockshop at Fort Lewis faced a double challenge: implementing cost-effective door locking technology that would be compatible with the new DoD smart card — in historic, brick buildings approaching the century mark — where hard-wiring was not an option. Says Cody: “We need to know when our facilities are accessed and by whom, but we must also remember that we are stewards of the taxpayers money and cost is a factor.”

Citing $30,000 per building in hard-wiring as prohibitive, Cody began to investigate alternative radio-frequency devices to be used in key locations. He found the solution in Millenium Entry Systems from Kaba/Ilco, controlled by Wyreless Access radio frequency door locks from Recognition Source. Quentin Controls worked with Fort Lewis' technicians on the installation.

“The RF range of the system is 300 feet,” Cody explains, “so by placing the antenna unit in the center of a building, we can secure all the doors, and the Millenium system is compatible with the CAC cards.”

A combination of door-locking systems is now in place according to the needs of key locations, and further installations are planned, Cody says.

He adds that in the future, building on biometrics capabilities will be a priority — the DoD has a Biometrics Management Office, dedicated to biometric research and coordination, and Fort Lewis' own product testing routinely includes biometric devices.

“Going forward,” Cody says, “the goal is to provide every facility the ability to maintain 100 percent true access accountability with user-friendly systems.”

FOR THE RECORD

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Kate Henry is an Annapolis, Md.-based writer and regular contributor to Access Control & Security Systems.

ABOUT THE COMPANIES

For information, please circle the appropriate Reader Service number (listed below) on one of the Reader Service cards in the issue or visit www.securitysolutions.com.

Kaba Ilco Corp.	20
Quentin Controls	21
Recognition Source (Wyreless Access)	22

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