History
Established in 1994.
Twenty years ago, a father named Ron Fuhrman founded the Air Land Emergency Resource Team with a simple but powerful motto: "Strong to serve." Young men were invited to a campus in the Northwoods of Michigan to attend Basic Training, where they were challenged to test the limits of their strength in a way that deepened their relationships with God. Next they were trained with skills they could use in disaster relief efforts and in service to their communities. Within a few years, the academy was starting to burst at the seams, and through a providential series of events, a 2250-acre campus in Big Sandy proved to be a perfect new setting for the program. Teams from ALERT have now responded to more than a hundred natural disasters to date, including Hurricanes Katrina, Ike, and Sandy; the 2010 Haiti earthquake; and tornados in Birmingham Alabama, Joplin Missouri, and McLoud Oklahoma. In addition, ALERT men have taken part in over eight hundred community service projects and events.
Meet the Manager: John T.
Colonel John Tanner has been with ALERT since 1994. Before working with ALERT, Col. Tanner worked for AT&T for 17 years and spent six years in the Army Reserves 94th General Hospital. During that time, he also worked as a youth director for seven years, and worked in Moscow, Russia, for nine months teaching character in the public schools of Moscow. He has worked with almost 100 SAR missions to date, including the Space Shuttle Columbia recovery, as well as more than 40 disaster relief deployments. Among Col. Tanner's certifications are Firefighter I, Underwater Recovery (NAPD), Sawyer, Emergency Care Attendant (1988 - 1992), NIMS ICS 100, 200, 300, 400, 700, and 800, Basic, Core, and Advance Life Support, Principles of Emergency Management - G230, Emergency Planning - G235, Wildland Firefighting - S 130, Wildland Intermediate Fire Behavior - S 290, Fundamentals of Search and Rescue - NASAR, Tracking as a Resource for Search and Rescue, and FEMA/USAR International Deployment.
