thedrifter
06-14-06, 06:52 AM
Marines prepare for disaster
June 14,2006
CHRIS MAZZOLINI
DAILY NEWS STAFF
Sirens blared as firefighters in full gear stalked outside the Camp Lejeune post office Tuesday as Douglas Davis recalled last year’s mail scare.
A package with no return address arrived at the post office, leaking powder, explained Davis, an antiterrorism officer at Lejeune. Inside were pictures of a Pakistani family.
Emergency responders thankfully learned the powder was nothing more than spices a mother ordered for her Marine. The pictures were placed in the box accidentally, a mistake by the company.
It was a close call, a reminder how easily the dust could have been something else, something far more malignant.
“We know it could really happen,” said Davis, minutes before Marines covered in unknown powder and blood scurried from the post office, screaming for help.
The Marines were actually fine, just actors in an invented tragedy, fiction uncomfortably close to reality.
The manufactured scare was the first salvo of a three-day exercise intending to test and train Lejeune’s emergency personnel and their response to security breaches, terrorist attacks, hostage situations and a number of other disaster scenarios.
Training with such elaborate simulations is a necessary precaution in this day and age, especially on a military base like Lejeune, said Davis, the exercise’s director.
“There’s no way we can scan every piece of mail or every vehicle that comes on base,” he said, “so we have to be ready to respond. (Emergency personal) have been training really hard, and we want to put all that training into an exercise.”
Davis, who is directing the exercise, kicked it off with a phone call to emergency personnel. He pretended to be a corporal sorting mail in the post office when a nearby package burst and ejected a whitish powder.
Panic ensued, and at least eight people were injured during the retreat from the Post Office. Outside, firefighters and paramedics set up a triage station and emergency showers. Some climbed into blue chemical suits, preparing to enter the post office and investigate the source of the hysteria.
Then the first casualties staggered from the building, two Marines, covered in powder.
“Help!” one yelled, clutching a wound on his arm. “Help us!”
“Stay where you are,” a firefighter called back. “Help is on the way.”
Emergency workers eventually convinced the frazzled victims to kneel down on the ground as officials prepared a decontamination pool. The victims were washed and taken to triage, where paramedics assessed their conditions.
The post office scenario continued later that day at a branch aboard Camp Johnson. The overall drill, which took six months of planning, will run through Thursday and pit emergency services against a number of other daunting situations. Sometime today, a harmful chemical agent is going to infiltrate the Holcomb Boulevard Water Treatment Plant. And on Thursday, exercise participants will stage a military school hostage scenario.
The variety of challenges will give emergency officials the chance to test all facets of their response procedures, from practice using their equipment to communication and what to do when things go wrong.
For example, parts of a decontamination tent broke Tuesday while emergency workers were setting it up. They were forced to adapt to the situation.
Davis said he has no idea how likely a terrorist attack at Lejeune would be, but each bit of training gets the system that much more prepared for the real thing if it does happen.
“When it comes to a terrorist attack, that’s why we train: You never know,” he said. “We can’t train for everything, but we’ll try.”
Contact Chris Mazzolini at cmazzolini@freedomenc.com or 353-1171, Ext. 229.
Ellie
June 14,2006
CHRIS MAZZOLINI
DAILY NEWS STAFF
Sirens blared as firefighters in full gear stalked outside the Camp Lejeune post office Tuesday as Douglas Davis recalled last year’s mail scare.
A package with no return address arrived at the post office, leaking powder, explained Davis, an antiterrorism officer at Lejeune. Inside were pictures of a Pakistani family.
Emergency responders thankfully learned the powder was nothing more than spices a mother ordered for her Marine. The pictures were placed in the box accidentally, a mistake by the company.
It was a close call, a reminder how easily the dust could have been something else, something far more malignant.
“We know it could really happen,” said Davis, minutes before Marines covered in unknown powder and blood scurried from the post office, screaming for help.
The Marines were actually fine, just actors in an invented tragedy, fiction uncomfortably close to reality.
The manufactured scare was the first salvo of a three-day exercise intending to test and train Lejeune’s emergency personnel and their response to security breaches, terrorist attacks, hostage situations and a number of other disaster scenarios.
Training with such elaborate simulations is a necessary precaution in this day and age, especially on a military base like Lejeune, said Davis, the exercise’s director.
“There’s no way we can scan every piece of mail or every vehicle that comes on base,” he said, “so we have to be ready to respond. (Emergency personal) have been training really hard, and we want to put all that training into an exercise.”
Davis, who is directing the exercise, kicked it off with a phone call to emergency personnel. He pretended to be a corporal sorting mail in the post office when a nearby package burst and ejected a whitish powder.
Panic ensued, and at least eight people were injured during the retreat from the Post Office. Outside, firefighters and paramedics set up a triage station and emergency showers. Some climbed into blue chemical suits, preparing to enter the post office and investigate the source of the hysteria.
Then the first casualties staggered from the building, two Marines, covered in powder.
“Help!” one yelled, clutching a wound on his arm. “Help us!”
“Stay where you are,” a firefighter called back. “Help is on the way.”
Emergency workers eventually convinced the frazzled victims to kneel down on the ground as officials prepared a decontamination pool. The victims were washed and taken to triage, where paramedics assessed their conditions.
The post office scenario continued later that day at a branch aboard Camp Johnson. The overall drill, which took six months of planning, will run through Thursday and pit emergency services against a number of other daunting situations. Sometime today, a harmful chemical agent is going to infiltrate the Holcomb Boulevard Water Treatment Plant. And on Thursday, exercise participants will stage a military school hostage scenario.
The variety of challenges will give emergency officials the chance to test all facets of their response procedures, from practice using their equipment to communication and what to do when things go wrong.
For example, parts of a decontamination tent broke Tuesday while emergency workers were setting it up. They were forced to adapt to the situation.
Davis said he has no idea how likely a terrorist attack at Lejeune would be, but each bit of training gets the system that much more prepared for the real thing if it does happen.
“When it comes to a terrorist attack, that’s why we train: You never know,” he said. “We can’t train for everything, but we’ll try.”
Contact Chris Mazzolini at cmazzolini@freedomenc.com or 353-1171, Ext. 229.
Ellie