Are you prepared to check your six? Published Nov. 9, 2012 By Senior Airman Joel Mease 379th Air Expeditionary Public Affairs SOUTHWEST ASIA -- It can happen anytime, anywhere and to anyone - your survival depends on you being prepared to respond to an event that threatens your life. U.S. Air Force Central has initiated a new program called Check Six, designed to have oneself rethink his or her comfort zone and refocus on what's going on around them. "The goal of the program is to instill an individual self-defense culture where all Airmen are trained and mentally prepared to react to any act of violence against them or others," said 1st Lt. Octavio Gaeta, 379th Air Expeditionary Wing Force Protection chief. "Every Airman becomes a Defender...every Airman becomes a first responder." Check Six is designed to be a simple three-step process: 3 + 2 + 1 = 6. Airmen have only three options, escape, barricade or fight back; only two possible outcomes, live or die; and only one chance to get it right. "In an active shooter event, a human can become overloaded and move into a state of panic," said Capt. James Taylor, AFCENT force protection/anti-terrorism officer. "Look at the examples we have of active shooters in the United States alone - reactions are chaotic and random. By simplifying the situation into three options, we give Airmen the chance to make a faster, more educated decision to defend themselves." Taylor points out, in situations where active shooters have just a few people make the choice to fight back could have the potential to save the life of others. "When the shooting occurred at the movie theater in (Aurora, Colo.), it was pure chaos," Taylor said. "It seemed everyone went with the escape option. If as few as three or four people would have chosen the fight option, they may have been an overwhelming force against the lone shooter." The decision to focus on creating a program on being consistently vigilant when other programs exist was based on the natural tendency of Airmen becoming complacent the longer they were in the deployed area. "The deployment cycle productivity and alertness have been studied and documented to show a decrease with time," Taylor said. "If you couple that with the increase of insider threats, active shooter violence and other dangerous assaults, you have situations that put our Airmen's lives in jeopardy. This is unsatisfactory." Airmen can make this program a success by understanding the value represented by Check Six. "Humans can display what is called normalcy bias," Taylor said. "This will cause people to underestimate the possibility of an active shooter, insider threat, or other dangerous assaults occurring and its possible effects. The assumption is that since one of these events has never happened to them, then it never will occur." Educating yourself is ultimately what will change that mindset and implement Check Six into an Airman's daily routine if the need arises. "When Airmen internalize the possibility of one of these events occurring and the fact security forces has a finite time to respond, they will want to know more to mitigate or prevent a threat from occurring on their base," Taylor said. "To own the program, Airmen must first admit one of these events can occur to them." U.S. Air Force Central believes the idea of defending the base and one's self is critical to the safety of all assigned to the area of responsibility. "I take very seriously each commander's responsibility to protect our people, assets and missions." said Lt. Gen. David Goldfein, U.S. AFCENT commander. "Over the course of Check Six's implementation and development, I will be looking to each of you to carry out this critical mission objective." The Check Six program has been implemented as required training for all deploying Airmen coming to the AOR. Over the next several months a Check Six Implementation Team will be traveling to all bases throughout the AOR to facilitate and train Airmen on the Check Six program.