911:: Pentagon area situation

[Guest guest]

Supposed to be off for the weekend. Nope. On-duty dispatcher

was taken to Arlington Hospital Center with 'acute abdomen.'

She's now sedated, IV pain med's, and we're waiting for some

update.

I was the only one off-duty who answered the phone. Actually,

my wife answered and woke me. So, after a few graveyards, I'm

on days. Not a melt-down but furstrating. We're all trying to

figure out how to cover the console and still not lose vacation

on Dec 31. Three of us have more 'must use' vacation hours

than there are hours left in the year.

Truthfully, though, I felt cut off when I left the console. I

was used to hearing most of the on-scene traffic, talking with

people who had just left the scene, and calling the State

Police barracks. Watching it on TV was frustrating, especially

having seen how much misinformation was broadcast by the TV news

organizations. I felt better, back in the hole ... after the

sixth cup of coffee.

I wish I had good news about Trooper Mike Middleton but his

condition is unchanged: critical but stable. One of the night

shift units plans to go to andria hospital to see if the

staff will give up something more. I doubt it. Like I wrote

before, the nurses finally ran the 40 to 50 troopers who had

held vigil in the 16-chair waiting room the first two days.

They promised to inform the Fairfax Barracks of any change.

I could hear the tension at the Pentagon scene (I can't say,

'Ground Zero.' I was once assigned to the Pentagon. 'Ground

Zero' was and probably still is the name of the snack bar in

the center of the Pentagon's courtyard.) in the radio traffic.

For the first three days, with Arlington Fire as Incident

Command, radio traffic was terse and efficient. It was a

model of the incident command system, each sector doing the

functions assigned to keep the operation running as smoothly

as possible.

In the last three days, with the FBI in charge, there's lots

of confusion and frustration. Today, I overheard traffic units

being assigned to escort dump trucks. I heard a truck carrying

a large construction-site side dumpster being ordered to turn

around and leave the scene because the FBI investigators were

afraid that evidence would be mixed with and contaminated by

debris. Huh? Didn't a large jet and the collapse do that?

Anyway, twenty minutes later, I hear that some other FBI guy

wants to know where the dumpster that they ordered was. Huh?

It was there. FBI sent it away. Now FBI wants it back. It

is Saturday and it took a lot of effort by the Resource Sector

to get a dumpster that was sent away after it was on the scene.

Get it back? On a Saturday?

A half hour later, I received a call from the Resource Officer

asking if Falls Church could supply 40 'Eagle' cans (the big

80 gallon trash cans on wheels. Falls Church runs our own

municiple trash collection service.). Sorry. Only two

extras in our Property Yard right now. If you had asked

yeterday.... Yes, Falls Church dispatchers can get ahold of

Public Works officials 24/7 for emergency requests, even for

trash cans. But we can't perform miracles when lives are no

longer on the line.

I can hear the frustration in the voices of the police, fire,

and rescue folks, both Arlington's Pentagon Incident Command

and in the individual police/fire/rescue workers. It is

obvious that the FBI personnel have no training in handling

such large incidents and no experience in such large scenes.

But they are now in charge, issuing conflicting instructions

that frustrate the police, fire, and rescue workers at the

scene.

As an example, Command broadcast information to 'all units'

that 'test flights' would be flying ouf of Regan National

Airport. It was obvious that the broadcast was to inform

everyone on the scene of the flights so that there would be

no concern. About five minutes later, Command repeated the

broadcast. Just fifteen or twenty seconds after that second

broadcast, 'FBI' got on the channel and ordered Command to

inform all units that test flights would be flown out of

National. You could hear the disgust in the voice of the

Command radio operator replying that everyone was already

informed. That the FBI likes talking on the channel but

doesn't bother with listening.

I asked a number of folks, firefighters and law enforcement

folks, if it was as bad as it sounded from the radio traffic.

All said that it was worse than what the radio traffic

indicated. Volunteers are still out there and don't plan to

leave. They are, however, now feeling frustrated and angry

with the current situation at the Pentagon 'crime scene' as

controlled by a disorganized group of FBI employees issuing

conflicting orders to them.

I'm back home. I hope I get Sunday off this week.

Always take good care of yourself and yours,

Calls occur randomly... all at the same time!

R J 'Tree' Greenwood

Falls Church & Catlett VA

doctree@... on The 911 Console

doctree@... on 911-Talk

rgreenwood@...