Meteorologist turns "social worker" as SARC

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Carolyn (Viss) Herrick
  • Public Affairs
JOINT BASE PEARL HARBOR-HICKAM, Hawaii --  As a ROTC cadet, Brandon Alford had his first encounter with the serious subject of sexual assault when a friend confided in him about a prior incident. Alford was majoring in meteorology and Chinese, not social work, and he felt helpless not knowing what resources were available or what to do to be there for his friend.

After going on a long run to clear his head, he sought out any and everything he could do give that friend support during a time of distress. Little did he know that, as a result of his contact with someone who was the victim of such a  crime, he would eventually become a full time Sexual Assault Response Coordinator.

"I got here in October of '08, and by March I went through the course to become a victim advocate," said Alford, now an active-duty first lieutenant for the 17th Operational Weather Squadron here, where he is the officer in charge of standardization and evaluations.

His weather squadron is in charge of all the operational weather across the Pacific Command -- 113 million square miles of responsibility where they handle all forecasting and resource protection.

"We do airfield forecasts for all airfields with American assets, and we do resource protection for various places where Americans are working, and then we handle large-scale forecasting -- things you see on TV with weather fronts, etc. -- for the whole Pacific," he said.

Coming from a job handling all the standardizations, evaluations, training and compliance for the section, Lieutenant Alford said becoming a VA helped redefine him as a person.

"I figured if I can't stop sexual assault, at least I can help treat it," he said.

He liked being a VA so much he decided to go to SARC school.

"After the course, one of the trainers who's been doing social work for 30 years ... came up to me and said, 'You're not a weather guy,'" Lieutenant Alford recalled. "'I said, 'Yeah I am.' She said, 'No, you're not -- you're a social worker.' I thought about it, and I said, 'Oh wow... that's pretty cool.'"

Lieutenant Alford said being involved with the program has made him realize there's a way he can have a bigger impact on people besides predicting the weather. Now, he is the acting Air Force SARC here while the full-time SARC is deployed. He hopes when he moves on to a future assignment he can be the base SARC.

"I love weather," Lieutenant Alford said. "I'm a scientist. But at the same time, I want to be able to affect more people."
According to the 2010 Prevalence/Incidence Survey of Sexual Assault in the Air Force Gallup Survey, the incidence of sexual assault in the Air Force is 3.4 percent among women and 0.5 percent among men.

Although he is a male dealing with mostly female victims, the young lieutenant said it isn't hard for him -- in fact, he feels it's what he's "supposed" to do.

"As a male, I think it has something to do with my innate desire to protect people," Lieutenant Alford said. "It also gives them the opportunity to see that a) not all men are the people who attack them, and that b) there is someone strong and caring out there."

During extensive training as a VA and SARC, he has heard the post-traumatic stress level of one rape equated to a year of ground combat countless times. Being a part of the solution is this lieutenant's way of combating the problem.

"The fact that the military has given me the opportunity to step outside my normal realm and reach out to various people, whether by awareness or treatment, is really inspiring," Lieutenant Alford said. "It shows the military does have a way ahead on this kind of thing. They know it's a problem, and they are willing to find ways to make it better."

April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month. For more information on sexual assault prevention, response or reporting procedures, or to becoming a victim advocate, contact your installation SARC. Information is also available on the DOD SAPR Web site at http://www.sapr.mil/