Senior U.S. military officers expressed concern about communication procedures following a false ballistic missile alert sent out by authorities in Hawaii in early January, emails obtained by The Washington Post show.
The warning from Hawaii's Emergency Management Agency, which urged people to "seek immediate shelter," was mistakenly sent by an employee who mistook a drill for a real warning about a missile threat. He sent the alert without a sign-off from a supervisor, and it took 38 minutes for officials to send an alert retracting the warning because Hawaii did not have a standardized system for sending corrections, the FCC said.
"There will be heavy press play here, for sure, which we'll handle for those questions which concern PACOM forces," Adm. Harry Harris, the chief of U.S. Pacific Command, wrote to several senior Pentagon officers. "Will also work with the State of Hawaii and internal to PACOM — am sure there are lessons learned where we can improve."
However, there was "a lot of explaining by the State of Hawaii to do," he added.
Andrew Singer, Harris' deputy director for intelligence, said the state "has more than the alert system to work on," in an email to Gen. Kevin Schneider, Harris' chief of staff.
Schneider responded, saying, "lots of work to be done on the communications piece."
Harris, according to the Post, also expressed concern that the false alert did not reach the Pacific Command operations center because U.S. troops there are not allowed to bring their cell phones inside as a security measure.
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