Official website of the Department of Homeland Security
The All-Hazards Communications Unit Leader (COML) course trains emergency responders to serve as radio communications unit leaders during all-hazards emergency operations. COML responsibilities include developing plans to effectively use incident communications equipment and facilities, managing distribution of communications equipment to incident personnel, and coordinating the installation and testing of communications equipment. Since late 2008, the Office of Emergency Communications (OEC) has hosted COML courses across the nation, resulting in more than 5,000 trained emergency responders.
OEC and the Federal Emergency Management Agency's Emergency Management Institute have integrated the COML curriculum to jointly offer a standardized COML course.
Class Prerequisites
All-Hazards COML candidates must have the following prerequisites to attend the course:
- A public safety communications background with exposure to field operations; this experience should be validated by the authority who supervised the applicant.
- Basic knowledge of local communications and communications systems; frequencies and spectrum; technologies; local topography; system site locations including knowledge of state, regional, and local communication plans; and communications and resource contacts.
- Completion of the following training courses:
- IS-700
- IS-800b
- ICS-100
- ICS-200
- ICS-300
Additional Resources
- The Communications Unit Leader (COML): A Valuable Resource for Incident Commanders (PDF, 2 pages – 430 KB)
- All-Hazards COML Frequently Asked Questions (PDF, 4 pages – 321 KB)
- OEC Information Bulletin - All-Hazards Type III COML Training (PDF, 2 pages – 57.1 KB)
- COML Fact Sheet (PDF, 3 pages – 46.1 KB)
- All-Hazards ICS Communications Unit Leader Task Book (PDF, 15 pages – 354 KB)
- All-Hazards Communications Unit Leader Class Description (PDF, 4 pages – 86.2 KB)
Additional Communications Unit Courses
Contact
For additional information contact comltraining@dhs.gov