911:: Pentagon Incident dispatch (Long)

[Guest guest]

During Virginia APCO's Fall Conference in Roanoke VA, an hour

of was devoted to 'The Pentagon - An American Tragedy' on

Tuesday. I should have specifically asked permission to

repeat some of the descriptions but it should be OK since the

session was open. All that follows is from that session,

not from any private discussions later on. My personal

comments are in square brackets [] to separate them from

what was said by the Arlington folks.

Steve Souder, Arlington Co ECC's director, was scheduled to

moderate the hour but was called away for a family emergency.

Many of you have met him because he's heavily involved with

Project 40, The Staffing Crisis. took his place and

did a bang-up job.

Arlington's normal/preferred staffing is 10. Minimum staffing

is six and there were exactly six on duty the morning of 9-11.

Police board, fire board, service desk/TTY, three call takers.

Some were pulling overtime outside their normal shifts (i.e.,

a permanent graveyard worker on day shift) to cover for

another six who were in training on their new phone system

that will go live someday soon. They normally work 12 hour

shifts and rotate positions every four hours.

After introduced his group, Kyra Pulliam was first to

speak. Right after 6:45 roll call, she sat down at the

police console. She described activity as 'slow,' so slow

that an officer asked, " Did you cut the phone lines? " The

TV was on and the whole room was watching the news from NY

and the WTC even though they were at minimum (and have

recently had to work below their minimums). [My comment:

Do you believe in 'the lul before the storm', too? I worry

when it's slow.] As they were watching the live reports,

someone in the Arlington center commented that they were

" lucky. It could happen here, too. "

The first incident related call on the police side was an

officer who reported a large jet " really low, east-bound

over Columbia Pike. " What followed was the 4 minutes of

audio that was released to the press reporting the crash.

The initial dispatch was four units to set up a perimeter

and safety. But others poured out: CID units, school

resource officers, off-duty units, and 'the brass' were

all marking up at once, instantly doubling the number of

units usually on-the-air at that time.

I'm stuck on the word, but it was serendipitous that the

six dispatchers taking training on the new phone system

were getting that training in the ECC conference room

right next to dispatch. All six got up and filled the

center, doubling the ECC staff very quickly. Kyra

said that one of the fresh faces, maybe Mindy (but I

can't be sure from my notes) picked up a pad and plugged

in with her to keep track as more and more units marked

on and enroute. Within 45 minutes of the initial

dispatch, Kyra was handling six times the normal number

of units, many of them now mutual aid units from

surrounding jurisdictions, Fairfax County and Falls

Church. She really appreciated having " an extra set

of ears. "

Kyra stayed on the police board continuously from a bit

before 0700 until 1430 when she " was forced " to take a

break. Her comment was, " It was hard to get off the

team. "

I lost track of who was saying what for a bit, as ,

Mindy, and Becky joined the conversation at the table.

I'll list all those points at the end.

Kuehn was on fire board. Like the police side,

it was a dead morning for the first few hours. " We had

zero calls, " she told us. Then, just minutes before the

incident, everything happened at once. Most serious was

a report of smoke in a high rise apartment building

requiring a full response, trucks, engines, squads,

medics, Bn chief. And a few more routine medic calls

(with engine company with them per protocol) popped up.

The first report of the incident on the fire side was

an engine company that was responding to one of the

other calls reporting, " Plane down in Crystal City. "

Becky sat down with a pad, plugged in with ,

and worked to keep track of a truly massive response

while also helping to keep track of the other ongoing

incidents. Like Kyra, the 'extra ears' were more than

appreciated.

had to start diverting equipment from the other

incidents to the Pentagon while calling for mutual aid from

adjacent jurisdictions to backfill and complete the boxes

for the other incidents that were still working.

[They should be justifiably proud that every call got a

prompt and proper response. Citizens just couldn't help

having heart attacks and such just because terrorists were

flying planes into buildings. Damn, they're good.]

About there, I lost track of who was saying what. I was jotting

notes of key points as fast as I could. Here are some points I

got down but can't say which panel member said them:

1. Reverse 911 was used to:

a. Alert off-duty units and communicators, including route

instructions since some of the main roads were either closed or

blocked by traffic.

b. Implement pre-planned mutual aid.

c. Summon the USAR (Urban Search and Rescue Teams) from

Fairfax County VA and Montgomery County MD. Those teams were

eventually relieved by teams from Virginia Beach and New

Mexico.

Reverse 911 relieved dispatchers of having to make lots of

separate phone calls with exactly the same information and

was a big help. Since it used very quickly (before the phone

system virtually crashed), it worked very well.

2. One of the primary dispatchers, Kyra, I think but can't

be sure from my notes, had a brother-in-law working at the

Pentagon to add to the worries.

3. Although reverse 911 was used to summon personnel, the

off-duty dispatchers didn't need the call. Most were on the

way in by the time the computer called their empty houses.

Not only did off-duty dispatchers come in, former employees

who knew Arlington and the ECC filtered in to help. They

were put to work in the EOC that was activated down on the

first floor (Arlington Co ECC is on the 5th floor) and at

the scene. One trainee who finished call-taking but wasn't

going to make it through the radio training and had already

put in her resignation was right there with everyone else

doing what she COULD do and doing it well. All of the panel

members commented on how well they worked as 'a team.'

4. They did incident dispatch from the on-scene command

post from sometime around mid-day of 9-11 and for days

afterward. There was a communications sector responsible

communications between all of the diverse agencies that

were involved: police, fire, EMS, FBI, NTSB, FAA, etc.

5. Since all planes were ordered to land at the nearest

airport, there was lots of confusion for over 20 minutes as

airplanes that were already airborne returned to or came

down at Regan National Airport in Crystal City. The

regular flight path comes fairly close to the Pentagon

in usual circumstances but there were pilots who didn't

usually fly into National who were diverted there because

it was the closest airport. Since the grounding of all

planes was announced on TV, everyone wanted to report

every plane that was landing (as instructed) at Regan

National. [This is one of the times that the whole phone

switching system exceeded maximum overload and 'call

gapping' caused 'fast busy' even on emergency lines...

that never stopped ringing in the ECC.] Everyone agreed

that " all the lights on all the phone lines stayed lit

continuously for over two hours. "

6. The DC Council of Governments (COG) 900 MHz plan worked

well. Most of the Mutual Aid units could communicate directly

with Arlington ECC and Pentagon Command. Those who couldn't

were assigned separate sectors with an officer at command as

liaison with a radio on that jurisdictions frequency. The

whole system worked [probably because they had ECC dispatchers

at the scene to run communications. I vote for communicators

doing communications.].

7. There were some conflicting job requirements. , for

example, is on the CISD team and on the NMRT (National Capital

Medical Response Team, which is called for disasters and

would be called for a chemical, biological, or nuclear

terrorist attack). He was needed in all three roles and

ended up at the on-scene command post doing dispatch but

available for NMRT if needed.

8. My note says, " EMD hit. " I have no idea what I meant when

I wrote that, whether they suspended trying to do EMD or they

managed to keep it up throughout the incident. I suspect that

it means they suspended it because...

9. Once up to full staff and all consoles filled, they had

" lieutenants rubbing shoulders " with them, screening, evaluat-

ing, and prioritizing the calls still in " the stack. " That

helped cut down on radio traffic to a street supervisor.

10. commented that they needed to arrange for outside

CISD debriefings. Every CISM team member was tied up with

the incident for days and those going off shift really needed

quick defusings.

11. Someone from the peanut gallery asked about 'statistics'

on how many calls were taken, how many units, times, etc.

The answer was that " all of our tapes were 'seized' by the

FBI. " They will probably never be able to produce any

accurate figures on radio or telephone calls.

12. Becky's husband works for the Pentagon PD [but apparently

wasn't working on the morning of 9-11].

13. Some of the senior Arlington dispatchers were around for

the Air Florida crash into the Potomac River. Those outside

the DC area may not have known that Arlington also had to work

a subway wreck on the MetroRail system at the same time. In

training, newer dispatchers were told, " You won't ever see

anything like this bad again. "

14. There was never any shortage of food or drink at the

center. 'Design Cuisine' [a beyond upper crust catering

outfit in Arlington] had an order to be delivered to the White

House. Well, the White House was locked down and President

Bush and Air Force One diverted from flying back to DC, so

what were they to do with the President's dinner? Arlington

dispatcher's dined on President Bush's vittles.

15. The entryway into Arlington County ECC is completely

covered with greetings from all over the country. Most are

from other communications centers, followed by lots of

cards, drawings, etc. from children and schools. Quite a

few private citizens have also sent them encouragement.

Then there's the miscellaneous category, politicians, and

such. They said they check for new ones on the way into

the center for each shift. They are appreciated but they're

running out of room for them.

------------

Back to my comments and observations. All of the Arlington

folks started slowly. was stuck as a stand-in for

Steve Souder at the last moment, with no time to prepare.

He did a great job. Each of the others started slowly. Just

the facts, recited with precision and no emotion. Then they

got going, as a team, all talking at once. They could laugh,

frown, shake as they described fears that one of those

landing planes at Regan National might really be under the

control of more terrorists who would kill their firefighters

and officers... just like in New York. They all managed to

laugh, a good sign.

I hung around with them a bit but learned little that they

hadn't already described on Wednesday morning. Damn, they're

good. A real team.

Fast forward now to the CISM session on Thursday afternoon.

I can't speak too highly of Meador. She's still an

active dispatcher but always working on the latest and

greatest. If you haven't found it on your own (I'm 500 posts

behind in reading The Console), there are audio clips and

MDT transcripts from New York at http://www.newsday.com under

the 'courage and chaos' part. I haven't downloaded and

listened to any yet because of my slow dial-up modem but I

will when I can.

Anyway, started out with a whirlwind of how average

citizens are stressed out by the 9-11 events. How much

worse is it for public safety people? What are typical

responses? Shock, denial, horror, and disbelief switching

in the following days to overwhelming sorrow, grief,

feelings of hopelessness and helpless... Well, most of us

have had the class and even some refreshers.

Then brought up a stressor that I didn't know. 'White

Knight syndrome' and 'survivor's guilt.' She described an

incident, car full of teenagers over an embankment in mud,

officers down the hill, see it's unstable, shout commands

to arriving units. Under the direction of the Captain and

Lieutenant, everything went like clockwork and they

stabilized the car as best they could under the circum-

stances, taking calculated risks in order to save the kids.

They disentangled and extricated all of them successfully

before the car broke loose and continued down the

embankment. If any of the teens had still been in the car,

they would surely have been killed. All was well as both

of the officers collapsed from exhaustion.

When they were congratulated, both of them blew up. They

went thru the classic responses to a critical incident:

shock, denial 'It wasn't me that did it.', horror 'What if

the car broke loose while you were getting the girl out?'

followed by depression and anger bordering on rage.

Why?

The White Knight, the good guy, who gets singled out is

subjected to another burst fo stress. used the

example of the rescue of NYC's Captain Fuentes from the

WTC rubble that was publicized so much. Might he have

survivor's stress? Being singled out for interviews and

photos and accolades. In 's words, " You betcha. "

looked right at Kyra and as she gave some

of these examples. A debriefing/defusing of the new

stress of being singled out when it was 'the team' that

made it through the incident was taking place right

there in the class. I noticed it because I was sitting

right behind four of the Arlington folks.

then launched into coping with 'bursts of stress'

after the major incident, often talking directly to the

Arlington folks without coming right out with, " Look,

you two. Don't let other folks showing you appreciation

for a job well done be the final burst of stress that

really causes problems. Here are some ways to get

thru this. "

As ended her presentation with 'Victim - Survivor -

Thriver', a couple of folks developed sniffles and tried

to hide tears. I didn't see it but I know that

was sitting down with some of the folks later. I know

that on faith.

------------

Is Mike Middleton getting some of that 'White Knight' stress?

" You betcha. " Did you see the People's magazine article and

pictures (of him with more hair on his face than he usually

leaves on his head)? He gave most of the credit for what he

did to an unnamed construction worker who knew the lay-out

of the Pentagon. Typical.

I was really glad to see the pictures. Obviously the reports

I got of second degree burns on both arms and face were

exaggerated. All that hair would be gone as well as the

hair on his left arm, the one with the IV. And thanks a world

to those who told me about the article and who got me a copy

of the mag (I waited until Monday to look and the October 8

issue was already on the street with the Oct 1 issued returend

for credit in every store where I looked--and I looked in a

lot of them both near home and in Roanoke). Now keep praying

that the damage to his lungs isn't permanent.

's presentation and the statements by Arlington's folks

validate that '911 Cares' is on the right track, focusing on

the centers, 'the team.' I still owe a check. It's not in

the mail yet but I haven't forgotten.

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@...

[Guest guest]

In a message dated 01-10-06 16:04:56 EDT, you write:

<<

During Virginia APCO's Fall Conference in Roanoke VA, an hour

of was devoted to 'The Pentagon - An American Tragedy' on

Tuesday. I should have specifically asked permission to

repeat some of the descriptions but it should be OK since the

session was open. All that follows is from that session,

not from any private discussions later on. My personal

comments are in square brackets [] to separate them from

what was said by the Arlington folks.

Steve Souder, Arlington Co ECC's director, was scheduled to

moderate the hour but was called away for a family emergency.

Many of you have met him because he's heavily involved with

Project 40, The Staffing Crisis. took his place and

did a bang-up job.

Arlington's normal/preferred staffing is 10. Minimum staffing

is six and there were exactly six on duty the morning of 9-11.

Police board, fire board, service desk/TTY, three call takers.

Some were pulling overtime outside their normal shifts (i.e.,

a permanent graveyard worker on day shift) to cover for

another six who were in training on their new phone system

that will go live someday soon. They normally work 12 hour

shifts and rotate positions every four hours.

After introduced his group, Kyra Pulliam was first to

speak. Right after 6:45 roll call, she sat down at the

police console. She described activity as 'slow,' so slow

that an officer asked, " Did you cut the phone lines? " The

TV was on and the whole room was watching the news from NY

and the WTC even though they were at minimum (and have

recently had to work below their minimums). [My comment:

Do you believe in 'the lul before the storm', too? I worry

when it's slow.] As they were watching the live reports,

someone in the Arlington center commented that they were

" lucky. It could happen here, too. "

The first incident related call on the police side was an

officer who reported a large jet " really low, east-bound

over Columbia Pike. " What followed was the 4 minutes of

audio that was released to the press reporting the crash.

The initial dispatch was four units to set up a perimeter

and safety. But others poured out: CID units, school

resource officers, off-duty units, and 'the brass' were

all marking up at once, instantly doubling the number of

units usually on-the-air at that time.

I'm stuck on the word, but it was serendipitous that the

six dispatchers taking training on the new phone system

were getting that training in the ECC conference room

right next to dispatch. All six got up and filled the

center, doubling the ECC staff very quickly. Kyra

said that one of the fresh faces, maybe Mindy (but I

can't be sure from my notes) picked up a pad and plugged

in with her to keep track as more and more units marked

on and enroute. Within 45 minutes of the initial

dispatch, Kyra was handling six times the normal number

of units, many of them now mutual aid units from

surrounding jurisdictions, Fairfax County and Falls

Church. She really appreciated having " an extra set

of ears. "

Kyra stayed on the police board continuously from a bit

before 0700 until 1430 when she " was forced " to take a

break. Her comment was, " It was hard to get off the

team. "

I lost track of who was saying what for a bit, as ,

Mindy, and Becky joined the conversation at the table.

I'll list all those points at the end.

Kuehn was on fire board. Like the police side,

it was a dead morning for the first few hours. " We had

zero calls, " she told us. Then, just minutes before the

incident, everything happened at once. Most serious was

a report of smoke in a high rise apartment building

requiring a full response, trucks, engines, squads,

medics, Bn chief. And a few more routine medic calls

(with engine company with them per protocol) popped up.

The first report of the incident on the fire side was

an engine company that was responding to one of the

other calls reporting, " Plane down in Crystal City. "

Becky sat down with a pad, plugged in with ,

and worked to keep track of a truly massive response

while also helping to keep track of the other ongoing

incidents. Like Kyra, the 'extra ears' were more than

appreciated.

had to start diverting equipment from the other

incidents to the Pentagon while calling for mutual aid from

adjacent jurisdictions to backfill and complete the boxes

for the other incidents that were still working.

[They should be justifiably proud that every call got a

prompt and proper response. Citizens just couldn't help

having heart attacks and such just because terrorists were

flying planes into buildings. Damn, they're good.]

About there, I lost track of who was saying what. I was jotting

notes of key points as fast as I could. Here are some points I

got down but can't say which panel member said them:

1. Reverse 911 was used to:

a. Alert off-duty units and communicators, including route

instructions since some of the main roads were either closed or

blocked by traffic.

b. Implement pre-planned mutual aid.

c. Summon the USAR (Urban Search and Rescue Teams) from

Fairfax County VA and Montgomery County MD. Those teams were

eventually relieved by teams from Virginia Beach and New

Mexico.

Reverse 911 relieved dispatchers of having to make lots of

separate phone calls with exactly the same information and

was a big help. Since it used very quickly (before the phone

system virtually crashed), it worked very well.

2. One of the primary dispatchers, Kyra, I think but can't

be sure from my notes, had a brother-in-law working at the

Pentagon to add to the worries.

3. Although reverse 911 was used to summon personnel, the

off-duty dispatchers didn't need the call. Most were on the

way in by the time the computer called their empty houses.

Not only did off-duty dispatchers come in, former employees

who knew Arlington and the ECC filtered in to help. They

were put to work in the EOC that was activated down on the

first floor (Arlington Co ECC is on the 5th floor) and at

the scene. One trainee who finished call-taking but wasn't

going to make it through the radio training and had already

put in her resignation was right there with everyone else

doing what she COULD do and doing it well. All of the panel

members commented on how well they worked as 'a team.'

4. They did incident dispatch from the on-scene command

post from sometime around mid-day of 9-11 and for days

afterward. There was a communications sector responsible

communications between all of the diverse agencies that

were involved: police, fire, EMS, FBI, NTSB, FAA, etc.

5. Since all planes were ordered to land at the nearest

airport, there was lots of confusion for over 20 minutes as

airplanes that were already airborne returned to or came

down at Regan National Airport in Crystal City. The

regular flight path comes fairly close to the Pentagon

in usual circumstances but there were pilots who didn't

usually fly into National who were diverted there because

it was the closest airport. Since the grounding of all

planes was announced on TV, everyone wanted to report

every plane that was landing (as instructed) at Regan

National. [This is one of the times that the whole phone

switching system exceeded maximum overload and 'call

gapping' caused 'fast busy' even on emergency lines...

that never stopped ringing in the ECC.] Everyone agreed

that " all the lights on all the phone lines stayed lit

continuously for over two hours. "

6. The DC Council of Governments (COG) 900 MHz plan worked

well. Most of the Mutual Aid units could communicate directly

with Arlington ECC and Pentagon Command. Those who couldn't

were assigned separate sectors with an officer at command as

liaison with a radio on that jurisdictions frequency. The

whole system worked [probably because they had ECC dispatchers

at the scene to run communications. I vote for communicators

doing communications.].

7. There were some conflicting job requirements. , for

example, is on the CISD team and on the NMRT (National Capital

Medical Response Team, which is called for disasters and

would be called for a chemical, biological, or nuclear

terrorist attack). He was needed in all three roles and

ended up at the on-scene command post doing dispatch but

available for NMRT if needed.

8. My note says, " EMD hit. " I have no idea what I meant when

I wrote that, whether they suspended trying to do EMD or they

managed to keep it up throughout the incident. I suspect that

it means they suspended it because...

9. Once up to full staff and all consoles filled, they had

" lieutenants rubbing shoulders " with them, screening, evaluat-

ing, and prioritizing the calls still in " the stack. " That

helped cut down on radio traffic to a street supervisor.

10. commented that they needed to arrange for outside

CISD debriefings. Every CISM team member was tied up with

the incident for days and those going off shift really needed

quick defusings.

11. Someone from the peanut gallery asked about 'statistics'

on how many calls were taken, how many units, times, etc.

The answer was that " all of our tapes were 'seized' by the

FBI. " They will probably never be able to produce any

accurate figures on radio or telephone calls.

12. Becky's husband works for the Pentagon PD [but apparently

wasn't working on the morning of 9-11].

13. Some of the senior Arlington dispatchers were around for

the Air Florida crash into the Potomac River. Those outside

the DC area may not have known that Arlington also had to work

a subway wreck on the MetroRail system at the same time. In

training, newer dispatchers were told, " You won't ever see

anything like this bad again. "

14. There was never any shortage of food or drink at the

center. 'Design Cuisine' [a beyond upper crust catering

outfit in Arlington] had an order to be delivered to the White

House. Well, the White House was locked down and President

Bush and Air Force One diverted from flying back to DC, so

what were they to do with the President's dinner? Arlington

dispatcher's dined on President Bush's vittles.

15. The entryway into Arlington County ECC is completely

covered with greetings from all over the country. Most are

from other communications centers, followed by lots of

cards, drawings, etc. from children and schools. Quite a

few private citizens have also sent them encouragement.

Then there's the miscellaneous category, politicians, and

such. They said they check for new ones on the way into

the center for each shift. They are appreciated but they're

running out of room for them.

------------

Back to my comments and observations. All of the Arlington

folks started slowly. was stuck as a stand-in for

Steve Souder at the last moment, with no time to prepare.

He did a great job. Each of the others started slowly. Just

the facts, recited with precision and no emotion. Then they

got going, as a team, all talking at once. They could laugh,

frown, shake as they described fears that one of those

landing planes at Regan National might really be under the

control of more terrorists who would kill their firefighters

and officers... just like in New York. They all managed to

laugh, a good sign.

I hung around with them a bit but learned little that they

hadn't already described on Wednesday morning. Damn, they're

good. A real team.

Fast forward now to the CISM session on Thursday afternoon.

I can't speak too highly of Meador. She's still an

active dispatcher but always working on the latest and

greatest. If you haven't found it on your own (I'm 500 posts

behind in reading The Console), there are audio clips and

MDT transcripts from New York at http://www.newsday.com under

the 'courage and chaos' part. I haven't downloaded and

listened to any yet because of my slow dial-up modem but I

will when I can.

Anyway, started out with a whirlwind of how average

citizens are stressed out by the 9-11 events. How much

worse is it for public safety people? What are typical

responses? Shock, denial, horror, and disbelief switching

in the following days to overwhelming sorrow, grief,

feelings of hopelessness and helpless... Well, most of us

have had the class and even some refreshers.

Then brought up a stressor that I didn't know. 'White

Knight syndrome' and 'survivor's guilt.' She described an

incident, car full of teenagers over an embankment in mud,

officers down the hill, see it's unstable, shout commands

to arriving units. Under the direction of the Captain and

Lieutenant, everything went like clockwork and they

stabilized the car as best they could under the circum-

stances, taking calculated risks in order to save the kids.

They disentangled and extricated all of them successfully

before the car broke loose and continued down the

embankment. If any of the teens had still been in the car,

they would surely have been killed. All was well as both

of the officers collapsed from exhaustion.

When they were congratulated, both of them blew up. They

went thru the classic responses to a critical incident:

shock, denial 'It wasn't me that did it.', horror 'What if

the car broke loose while you were getting the girl out?'

followed by depression and anger bordering on rage.

Why?

The White Knight, the good guy, who gets singled out is

subjected to another burst fo stress. used the

example of the rescue of NYC's Captain Fuentes from the

WTC rubble that was publicized so much. Might he have

survivor's stress? Being singled out for interviews and

photos and accolades. In 's words, " You betcha. "

looked right at Kyra and as she gave some

of these examples. A debriefing/defusing of the new

stress of being singled out when it was 'the team' that

made it through the incident was taking place right

there in the class. I noticed it because I was sitting

right behind four of the Arlington folks.

then launched into coping with 'bursts of stress'

after the major incident, often talking directly to the

Arlington folks without coming right out with, " Look,

you two. Don't let other folks showing you appreciation

for a job well done be the final burst of stress that

really causes problems. Here are some ways to get

thru this. "

As ended her presentation with 'Victim - Survivor -

Thriver', a couple of folks developed sniffles and tried

to hide tears. I didn't see it but I know that

was sitting down with some of the folks later. I know

that on faith.

------------

Is Mike Middleton getting some of that 'White Knight' stress?

" You betcha. " Did you see the People's magazine article and

pictures (of him with more hair on his face than he usually

leaves on his head)? He gave most of the credit for what he

did to an unnamed construction worker who knew the lay-out

of the Pentagon. Typical.

I was really glad to see the pictures. Obviously the reports

I got of second degree burns on both arms and face were

exaggerated. All that hair would be gone as well as the

hair on his left arm, the one with the IV. And thanks a world

to those who told me about the article and who got me a copy

of the mag (I waited until Monday to look and the October 8

issue was already on the street with the Oct 1 issued returend

for credit in every store where I looked--and I looked in a

lot of them both near home and in Roanoke). Now keep praying

that the damage to his lungs isn't permanent.

's presentation and the statements by Arlington's folks

validate that '911 Cares' is on the right track, focusing on

the centers, 'the team.' I still owe a check. It's not in

the mail yet but I haven't forgotten.

>>