A method and apparatus for quickly forming a PAN is describe herein. During operation, a person (e.g., a public-safety officer) will be assigned a task or mission that is identified by an identifier (e.g., an incident identifier, or an incident type). A subset of available devices will be paired/associated to form a PAN based on the identified task or mission. In an alternate embodiment of the present invention the subset of available devices may be paired with an existing PAN based on the identified task or mission.