Contractors working on a military installation need two things before the work starts: access to the installation, and permission to be where the work is. Workers who cannot get unescorted access, or who need to enter a restricted area they are not authorized for, can often still do the work with an escort. On a construction or maintenance job, that can mean escorted crews every day, and someone has to provide the escorts.
Why contractors need escorts
Under the Defense Department’s installation access manual (DoDM 5200.08, Volume 3), unescorted access to an installation takes three things: proof of identity, a determination of fitness (that the person is not likely a risk to the installation, from a review of their records), and an acceptable purpose. People who do not meet those requirements but are visiting for an official purpose may be escorted instead.
Restricted areas inside a base have rules of their own. On Department of the Air Force installations, which include the Space Force’s, contract work that needs unescorted entry to controlled or restricted areas must follow the Air Force’s personnel security and integrated defense rules. Anyone who does not meet them enters only as the installation allows, often under escort.
Who can serve as an escort
The same manual sets the baseline. An escort:
- Holds an acceptable credential and meets the requirements for unescorted access to the installation.
- Comes from the organization being visited. People with no DoD affiliation cannot escort others onto an installation.
- Stays within reasonable visual contact of the people they escort at all times.
Installations add rules of their own, such as how many people one escort may take and what training escorts need, so the installation’s security office is the place to start.
What an escort does on a shift
- Meets the crew or delivery at entry and checks who is coming in against the access list.
- Keeps every escorted person in line of sight for the whole time inside the area.
- Keeps the crew to the areas and routes the work allows.
- Logs who came in, with whom, and when they left.
- Reports anything outside the rules to installation security right away.
Why contractors hire escort officers
Escorting takes people off the work. A crew lead who is escorting cannot also run the crew, and a job with several crews, shifts, or restricted areas can need several escorts at once. Many prime contractors staff escorts as a security post instead, with post orders built around the installation’s rules, so the trades keep working and the escort ratio holds. On a federal contract, a small-business escort subcontractor can also count toward the prime’s small-business subcontracting goals.
What to line up before a crew mobilizes
- The installation’s access process for every worker: base passes, the visitor control center, and who sponsors the request. On Air Force and Space Force installations, the contractor requests passes in writing through the contracting officer.
- The escort ratio and any escort training the installation requires.
- Which areas need escorts, and for whom: the whole site, or only its restricted areas.
- Shift times, start dates, and how far ahead the escort schedule has to be set.
- Who the escorts report to on site, and who they call when something is outside the rules.
- Relief for call-outs, so a missing escort does not stop the crew.
Colorado installations
Colorado’s Front Range has a dense cluster of military installations, among them Peterson, Schriever, and Buckley Space Force Bases, Cheyenne Mountain Space Force Station, Fort Carson, and the U.S. Air Force Academy. Each sets its own access and escort rules within DoD and service policy, so the escort plan starts with the installation’s security office.
Ares on military installations
Since 2025, Ares has provided restricted-area escort and access control on a Space Force base in Colorado, alongside installation security, as a subcontractor on a federal construction program. We build the post orders around the installation’s rules, train each officer on the post before the first shift, and back every contract with on-call scheduling.
Ares is an SBA-certified woman-owned small business (WOSB250470) and a WBENC-certified Women’s Business Enterprise (WBE2303571), and holds GSA MAS contract 47QSMS25D009Q.