Many of our readers will recognize themselves and their organizations in the stories and activities we reported throughout 2011 in our two newsletters: The Leading Edge monthly newsletter and From the ASSIST-U.S. Flight Line, a breaking news report.  

As we move into the new year, we look forward to hearing from you with feedback and comments on our communications with you.  

Sincerely,

Carolyn Abbott 

carolyn.abbott@assist-us.com  

Since our newsletter launched in September, 2010, which only allowed four editions before the end of the year, we began 2011 with updates from CEO, Gerry Kobelski, "Accomplishments, Upcoming Events" and from Rick Bartle, Director of Aviation Operations, "Technology Update, Operations Center, Personnel". This issue also reported on key activities and personnel changes in January:

• Completing the work on the NH Forestry Service contract, an aerial forest health survey to provide footage of a selected area that includes the Pisgah State Forest, the largest state park in New Hampshire.
• Hosting an "Emerging Technologies for Real-time Emergency Management" forum at the Grappone Center in Concord for law enforcement and first responder leaders (in the middle of a major snow storm!), assisted by two technology partners, Global Relief Technologies (Portsmouth, NH) and Saratoga Data Systems (Carlisle, MA).
• Participating in our first major trade show at the IDGA Disaster Management and Showcase Conference in Vienna, VA. Bruce Seibert (Founder, Product Manager), Gerry Kobelski (CEO) and David Trahan (Director of Sales & Marketing) met with key prime contractors and government agencies and were able to demonstrate our ability to stream live, full motion video and infrared data over the Internet to a team member's laptop in Virginia from our aircraft in New Hampshire. Read more here. 
• Carolyn Abbott (Director of Marketing Communications) attended the annual meeting of the Northeastern Forest Fire Protection Compact (NFFPC) in Portland, ME, as a guest of business partner GRT and presented the company's emergency response capabilities. Read her blog here and view that narrated video here.

ASSIST-U.S. Emergency Response Capabilities

• Personnel changes: Anthony Mayo joined the Aviation Ops team from Daniel Webster college as Aviation Project Manager and Pilot.

A flurry of articles citing the interest by law enforcement personnel in using Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) to support their missions in U.S. domestic airspace occurred in late 2010 and early 2011. That prompted Founder and Product Manager, Bruce A. Seibert, to publish a white paper on the use of manned vs unmanned aerial platforms in the national airspace and some of the pros and cons of each platform.  

Read that paper here on his blog.  

Rick Bartle, Director of Aviation Operations, announced the launch of our first product for the environmental services market, EnviroEyeSM. This product is intended for those organizations and individuals involved in complying with, or assisting others to comply with, local, state and federal environmental regulations. It is also being used to support scientists performing research on environmental protection and preservation issues. This product is also of interest to emergency responders who must deal with hazmat situations.  

Read about it here on Rick's blog and view this video demo of EnviroEye's capabilities.

EnviroEye: An ASSIST-U.S. Environmental Services Solution

From the ASSIST-U.S. Flight Line, March 04, 2011 (Launch edition): "House fire Response."  

Streaming full-motion video of firefighters' response to a Moultonboro, NH, house fire." View video:

ASSIST-U.S. House Fire Response

No monthly newsletter was published as team members travelled to Joplin, MO, and to Springfield, MA, to survey and document the tornado damage at those locations. View the video from Springfield.

ASSIST-U.S. Springfield MA Tornado Post- Storm Damage Assessment

From the ASSIST-U.S. Flight Line, May 10, 2011 - "The Picture That's Worth a Thousand Words."  

This interim e-letter highlighted our planned attendance at the June conference of the NH Association of Chiefs of Police and included an invitation to enter a drawing to receive a 1-hour free flight demonstration for mentioning this email when visiting our booth. The winner was announced in July. 

June 2011: The Leading Edge - "ASSIST-U.S. Helps Responders as Spring Storms Take Their Toll Across New England & America."  

This issue addressed the challenges that disaster managers have faced with the recent severe weather and other hazards occurring around the U.S. 

• In "Getting the Right Information, Right Now...", Rick Bartle (Director, Aviation Operations) described the challenges confronting first responders who need to acquire critical information to control the situation, keep personnel safe and achieve stabilization, while experiencing budget cuts that have reduced their resources. Read his blog here.
• In "New England Also Suffers as Severe Storms and Other Hazards Take a Toll Across America," Bruce Seibert described how aerial video imagery services offer real-time information to both public safety first responders and those involved in post-damage evaluations. Read his blog here.
• In "ASSIST-U.S.® Attends the New England Association of Fire Chiefs (NEAFC) Annual Meeting in Springfield, MA," Carolyn Abbott described how she and Bruce Seibert were among hundreds of other vendors present to learn first-hand how we could best serve the needs of the fire and rescue community. Read her blog here.
• Personnel changes: Aviation Project Manager and pilot, Tony Mayo, left his full-time pilot and project manager position for another aviation job and was replaced by Scott Patton, pilot and flight instructor from Daniel Webster College. Tony continues to work with us in a part-time role.

This month saw several interim e-letters that reported on our involvement in Hurricane Irene's advance up the East coast, from North Carolina to Vermont.   

From the ASSIST-U.S. Flight Line, August 25, 2011: - "Preparing for Hurricane Irene's landfall on the East Coast."

From the ASSIST-U.S. Flight Line, August 27, 2011: - "Storm Update: Hurricane Irene & ASSIST-U.S."

Pilots Scott Patten and Bruce Seibert and David Trahan, Sales & Marketing Director, flew to North Carolina to preposition the aircraft to follow the storm up the coast, in order to document and stream post-storm damage assessment imagery for a variety of emergency management and insurance organizations.

View the video from the Springfield, MA, tornado and the Hurricane Irene flooding in Vermont.

ASSIST-U.S. Natural Disaster Response

During the spring and late summer of 2011, ASSIST-U.S. was involved in post-storm damage assessments of the tornadoes that devastated Springfield MA, Joplin MO and other parts of the Midwest, along with Hurricane Irene, which devastated the Mid-Atlantic coast and Vermont.    

Bruce Seibert discussed some of this year's natural disasters and describes how real-time aerial imagery services can support the insurance industry's post-storm damage assessment needs. Read it on his blog here.  

View this video showcasing our footage of these events.  

ASSIST-U.S.® Operations & Capabilities Demonstration

In "Real-Time Imagery Services for the Insurance Industry-FAQs," Bruce answers a number of frequently asked questions about real-time video imagery and the insurance industry. For information of particular interest to insurance companies that must deploy emergency responders to catastrophic events, download this PDF document here.

From the ASSIST-U.S. Flight Line, September 9, 2011 - "Preparing for the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11th attacks."

State and local law enforcement agencies were receiving daily briefings from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on possible terror threats and ways to increase security in local communities, as the United States raised security alerts around the country for the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11th terror attacks.  

ASSIST-U.S.® was standing by to support the law enforcement/first responder community by providing aerial surveillance of critical infrastructure (highways, rails, shipping), national monuments, borders, etc., upon request from any agency.  

Personnel changes: Richard Jackson joined the company in September as the lead pilot and project manager for the New England Aquarium project. He had served most recently with the DoD in Iraq and Kosovo as a civilian executive and pilot in both rotary wing and fixed wing aircraft. Read his bio here. 

New England Aquarium Project Crew

Personnel changes: Pilot Scott Patton left the company to accept his dream job as an air traffic controller with the FAA in Nashua, NH.