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Researchers at Virginia Tech's Center for Wireless Telecommunications are investigating a rapidly-deployable broadband wireless communications system for disaster and emergency response. Our goal is to provide a 120-Mbps backbone network to connect a hub and up to eight field units that can be operational within a matter of hours and can support a diverse set of applications. We describe the need for such a system for disaster and emergency response, the current environment for investigating and deploying broadband wireless systems for this purpose, and the philosophy that is guiding our research. We describe our technical approach including, what we believe, are important innovations for advancing communications capabilities for disaster and emergency response. We also describe demonstrations of an early prototype system.