[MilCom] FAQ: What is an EAM?

[Larry Van Horn]

Since this is a frequently asked question, I thought I would share with this 
list my answer to Earl's question and a new online resource you can utilize 
for future queries.

> I'm new on the list -- do I understand correctly that "EAM" refers to
> Emergency Action Message? If so, I wonder if all these are related to
> the weather in the northeast USA.

Morning Earl and all,

Earl yours is a common question that milcom monitors get all the time. EAMs 
have nothing to do with the weather. They are specialized messages 
transmitted for command and control to various U.S. military units. The 
basic understanding of what an EAM is can be found at 
http://monitoringtimes.com/html/eam.html. It was written by our very own 
Jeff Haverlah.

I added additional and new material to Jeff's piece in this month's 
Monitoring Times magazine in my monthly Milcom column. In my column titled 
November-Foxtrot-India-India-Four-Sierra: DoD EAMs revisited.  I think the 
best information comes from the top dogs in DoD, the Joint Chiefs of Staff 
(JCS). In a JCS instruction 5721.01D dated February 8, 2008 on Nuclear 
Command, Control, and Communications (NC3) Hybrid Solution (HS), they wrote: 
"EAMs are highly structured, authenticated messages primarily used in the C2 
(Command and Control) of nuclear forces. EAMs are disseminated over numerous 
survivable and non-survivable communication systems, including terrestrial 
and space systems."

In another online publication published in 2008, the Nuclear Matters: A 
Practical Guide, Chapter 5 had these two statements: "Emergency Action 
Message - Use Authorization Control. An Emergency Action Message (EAM) is 
the medium through which actions involving nuclear weapons are authorized. 
These messages are encrypted and sent to lower-echelon units for action. The 
messages have different formats and may require authentication with sealed 
authentication code cards depending on the intent of the message. "National 
Military Command and Control System. The Joint Staff Director for Operations 
(J-3) operates the C2 system. EAMs are conveyed to the Combatant Commands 
through secure communications links."

There is a lot more to this story so if you are a MT print or MTXpress 
subscriber, you can get the rest of the story including freq info on pages 
52/53 of your December 2009 Monitoring Times. I have added this piece as a 
post to my online military communications blog at the address 
http://mt-milcom.blogspot.com/2009/12/what-is-eam.html.

73 de Larry

Larry Van Horn, N5FPW
Brasstown, NC USA
MT Assistant/Review/Technical Editor
Milcom/What's New/First Look Columnist
Milcom Monitoring Post at
http://mt-milcom.blogspot.com/