JSIVA team visits Sheppard Published May 9, 2008 By Airman 1st Class Candy Miller 82nd Training Wing Public Affairs SHEPPARD AIR FORCE BASE, Texas -- A Department of Defense Joint Staff Integrated Vulnerability Assessment team came to Sheppard from May 4 - 9 to help determine the base's ability to prevent or respond to a terrorist attack. "JSIVA is here to help," said Col. Carmen Perone, the JSIVA team chief, "We want to make sure Sheppard fully prevents and protects itself from possible attacks." He said the team helps inform the commander of the potential threats to the base as well as its assets and vulnerabilities. The team consists of eight members including the team chief, a terrorist operations specialist to help with risk management and intelligence support, and two security operations specialists to collect information through interviews and analyze potential terrorist threats, the colonel said. The group also consists of a structural engineer to go over the designs of the facilities and how it would be affected by an attack, an infrastructure engineer to work with communications, water and power, and two emergency management specialists who focus on the installation's ability to respond to chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear and high yield weapon attacks, said Colonel Perone. "Everybody I talked to was excited to help with the assessment," he said. JSIVA is a branch of the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, which is a DOD agency located at Fort Belvoir, Va., designed to protect the United States from weapons of mass destruction. DOD requires all installations to undergo a vulnerability assessment by an outside team like JSIVA every three years. They must all conduct a local assessment at least annually.