​Prepared by People Who Have Actually Done the Work

Salus does not teach preparedness from a textbook.

​

Our people have commanded disaster teams, SWAT operations, airport police departments, emergency operations centers, military units, federal investigations, evacuations, protective missions, humanitarian operations, and international crisis responses.

We have written national preparedness doctrine, managed real emergencies, protected critical operations, and rebuilt capability after failure.

 

We know what works. We know what fails. We know the difference between a plan that passes inspection and a capability that performs under pressure.

 

Plan. Train. Exercise. Correct. Be ready.

 

Talk With a Salus Operator >

 

The Bottom Line

 

A plan is not a capability.

 

A certification is not proof of readiness.

 

An exercise designed to guarantee success proves almost nothing.

 

Real readiness means your people can recognize the problem, establish command, communicate, make decisions, obtain resources, protect essential functions, and keep operating when conditions deteriorate.

 

SalOPS helps you build and prove that capability.

​

Operational Experience That Is Difficult to Match

 

Salus personnel have:

• Helped develop FEMA national doctrine for emergency operations planning and THIRA.

• Led FEMA continental United States air-operations planning and preparedness.

• Managed one of the world’s most frequently deployed international disaster-response teams.

• Led global disaster operations through the United Nations Disaster Assessment and Coordination system.

• Commanded airport police, security, emergency-management, communications, and emergency-operations programs.

• Commanded SWAT and special-operations personnel during presidential visits, national political events, major sporting events, and other high-profile operations.

• Led Coast Guard contingency planning, port security, counterterrorism, mass-care, evacuation, and humanitarian missions.

• Directed federal investigative and intelligence operations in the United States and overseas.

• Managed response and recovery for aircraft accidents, security breaches, bomb threats, severe weather, evacuations, infrastructure failures, and law-enforcement emergencies.

• Led public-safety and preparedness programs involving major airports, cities, government agencies, critical infrastructure, and international operations.

• Conducted search-and-rescue, disaster-response, and recovery operations in the United States and the Caribbean.

• Planned and supported protective operations across the United States, Canada, Mexico, Central and South America, the Caribbean, and the Middle East.

 

This is the experience behind SalOPS.

 

We Know What Good Looks Like

​

Our personnel have carried responsibility when failure had real consequences.

​

National Preparedness Doctrine

​

Salus COO Marc Duncan contributed to FEMA’s Comprehensive Preparedness Guide 101 for emergency operations planning and supported development of Comprehensive Preparedness Guide 201 for Threat and Hazard Identification and Risk Assessment.

 

He later led FEMA’s continental United States air-operations planning and preparedness work from 2012 through 2017, integrating aviation, logistics, emergency management, interagency coordination, and large-scale disaster operations.

 

Salus does not merely follow preparedness doctrine. Our leadership helped develop it and has applied it in the field.

 

International Disaster Command

 

Michael Schaff retired as a Battalion Chief from the Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department’s Special Operations Division. He managed USA-1, one of the world’s most frequently deployed disaster-response teams, and served with the United Nations Disaster

 

Assessment and Coordination system during major international disasters.

 

He has advised host-country leadership, coordinated multidisciplinary response resources, and supported operations under some of the most difficult conditions responders encounter.

 

Military, Maritime, and Humanitarian Operations

 

Captain Greg Duncan has led disaster response, evacuation, mass care, military operations, port security, humanitarian missions, and critical-infrastructure protection.

 

His assignments included service as the senior United States military official in Haiti, future-operations responsibilities within United

 

States Pacific Command, Coast Guard contingency planning, counterterrorism capability development, and National Special Security Event missions with the United States Secret Service.

 

Special Operations and Tactical Command

 

Captain Bradley Amstutz commanded SWAT and other special-operations personnel and coordinated operations involving airports, nuclear facilities, schools, universities, federal buildings, transportation systems, and major public venues.

 

His experience includes protective operations for presidential and vice-presidential visits, national political events, professional championship events, and other high-profile assignments. He also supervised major investigative functions and trained hundreds of officers and civilian personnel in crisis intervention and mental-health response.

 

Airport Command and Emergency Management

 

Kevin Murphy spent 27 years at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport, advancing from police officer to Police Chief. He commanded more than 100 sworn and civilian personnel, airport policing and security operations, emergency communications, and Airport Security Coordinator responsibilities.

 

He later served as the airport’s Emergency Operations Manager, coordinating emergency plans, agencies, exercises, and operational response. He has also testified before Congress regarding airport policing, active threats, public-area security, and law-enforcement coordination.

 

Valerie Steele brings more than 20 years of airport operational experience. At Raleigh-Durham International Airport, she managed aviation safety and security compliance and operational response involving aircraft accidents, bomb threats, security breaches, evacuations, severe disruptions, suspicious items, and law-enforcement emergencies.

 

Intelligence and Complex Investigations

 

Salus personnel include former senior leaders from the FBI, Department of Homeland Security, Central Intelligence Agency, United States Air Force, Federal Air Marshal Service, ATF, Coast Guard, and other federal, military, state, and local organizations.

 

Their experience includes counterterrorism, counterintelligence, cybercrime, insider threats, organized crime, public corruption, aviation security, international investigations, threat assessment, and coordination with foreign governments and intelligence services.

 

We understand that plans and operations fail when intelligence, command, communications, logistics, and field execution are treated as separate problems.

 

What SalOPS Does

 

Readiness Assessment

 

We determine what your organization must be capable of doing, what it can do now, and where the meaningful gaps exist.

 

We examine:

• Command and decision authority

• Staffing and qualification

• Plans and procedures

• Communications

• Facilities and emergency operations centers

• Equipment and technology

• Logistics and resource access

• Mutual aid and outside support

• Public information and crisis communications

• Continuity and recovery

• Training and exercise performance

• Corrective-action history

• Operational dependencies

• Competing demands for limited resources

 

The result is a practical operating picture—not a generic checklist.

 

Operational Planning

 

We develop and improve plans that personnel can actually use.

 

Support may include:

• Emergency operations plans

• Incident-specific plans

• Continuity and recovery plans

• Crisis-communications plans

• Evacuation and shelter-in-place plans

• Airport emergency plans

• Security and protective-operations plans

• Special-event plans

• Resource and logistics plans

• Family-assistance and reunification plans

• Cyber-physical incident coordination

• Interagency and mutual-aid procedures

 

Plans are built around actual authorities, resources, operating conditions, and time constraints.

 

Training

 

We train people for the responsibilities they will actually carry.

 

Training can be developed for:

• Executives and policy groups

• Incident commanders

• Emergency operations center personnel

• Security and law-enforcement teams

• Operations and facilities personnel

• Intelligence and investigative personnel

• Crisis-communications teams

• Continuity and recovery teams

• Airport and transportation personnel

• Contractors, vendors, and partner organizations

 

We do not confuse attendance with competence. Training must improve performance.

 

Exercises

 

Salus designs and conducts:

• Seminars

• Workshops

• Tabletop exercises

• Functional exercises

• Full-scale exercises

• Command-post exercises

• No-notice and limited-notice evaluations

• Communications and notification tests

• Continuity and recovery exercises

• Multiagency and multi-jurisdictional exercises

​

Scenarios are based on credible threats, hazards, vulnerabilities, dependencies, and operating conditions.

 

Exercises are designed to expose problems while they can still be corrected—not to protect appearances.

 

Evaluation and Corrective Action

We identify what happened, why it happened, and what must change.

 

That includes:

• Decisions and command performance

• Information flow

• Communications

• Coordination

• Personnel performance

• Resource access

• Operational timing

• Plan effectiveness

• Technology and equipment

• External dependencies

• Workarounds and improvised actions

• Unresolved findings from earlier incidents or exercises

 

Corrective actions receive responsible parties, priorities, and measurable completion requirements.

 

A lesson is not learned until something changes.

 

What You Receive

 

Depending on the assignment, Salus provides:

• A clear statement of required operational capability

• An honest assessment of current readiness

• Identification of gaps that could affect performance

• Practical plans and operating procedures

• Role-specific training

• Realistic exercises

• Direct observation by experienced operators

• After-action findings

• Prioritized corrective actions

• Implementation support

• Documentation of improvement

• Continuing reassessment as conditions change

 

No inflated report. No manufactured complexity. No findings without a practical path forward.

 

We Work With Your Operators

 

The people closest to the operation usually know where the problems are.

 

We listen to them.

 

Salus works directly with commanders, supervisors, responders, dispatchers, investigators, security personnel, emergency managers, facilities teams, technical specialists, logistics personnel, and other people responsible for execution.

 

We compare written plans with what actually happens in the field. We examine assumptions, workarounds, dependencies, and resource limitations. We identify where capable people are being forced to compensate for weak systems.

 

The objective is not to impress your staff with terminology.

 

The objective is to make the operation work.

 

We Will Tell You the Truth

 

Salus will not certify readiness that does not exist.

 

We will not design an exercise to guarantee a passing result. We will not hide a serious weakness to avoid an uncomfortable discussion. We will not recommend expensive equipment when the real problem is command, training, maintenance, staffing, or discipline.

 

We will tell you:

• What is working

• What is not working

• Why it matters

• What should be corrected first

• What it will take

• How to determine whether the correction worked

 

Experienced operators respect direct answers. That is what Salus provides.

 

Ready When It Matters

 

The worst time to discover a capability gap is during the incident.

 

SalOPS helps organizations prepare before conditions deteriorate, perform when consequences are real, and improve after every operation, exercise, and event.

 

If you need people who understand command, field operations, preparedness, and response because they have carried those responsibilities themselves, talk with Salus.

 

Preparedness must produce performance.

 

Speak With a Salus Operator >

Explore SalOPS Services >

Meet the Salus Team >