911:: Pentagon attack

[Guest guest]

It sounds like Arlington County ECC is starting to get back

to normal. Most of the terrorist attack traffic is now to

and from 'Command' rather than the ECC. Fairfax County's

Mobile EOC (you ought to see it; nicer than our fixed comm

center) is on the scene as the command post.

Our Sheriff's Dept personnel, who had manned checkpoints and

traffic control points to help Arlington, were released and

are coming in to get some sleep. District Court is cancelled

for tomorrow. I also heard Arlington release most of the

Fairfax County police units that were assisting. Even with

four or five times the usual number of units, radio traffic

is low because they're at fixed traffic or security points.

Patrol units are at the usual level and responding to the

usual incidents. Current police/sheriff traffic from the

Pentagon is about getting more flares and telling command

that, no, they don't need any more cold pizza or chicken.

In spite of all the problems with 800MHz systems, there are

advantages. Arlington County, andria, & Fairfax County

are all on 800 along with some other area jurisdictions.

Falls Church has started our transition to 800 but still

use 450-band as our primary. For unified command, everyone

was able to join Arlington on their frequencies or give up

frequencies to Arlington for on-scene use. It worked.

I'll let others say how well but, dang it, everybody could

talk to everybody just by 'dialing in' to Arlington's

channel(s).

The search and rescue activity at the Pentagon is under the

control of USART (Urban Search & Rescue Teams). They're

using portables that I can't scan so I can't add much to what

you're seeing on TV. If the Pentagon is still set up like

it was 19 years ago when I was assigned there, side 4 (of 5,

fire guys; how many times can you say 'side 5'?) was the Army

command staff: Chief of Staff, Deputy Chief's of Staff for

Personnel and Intelligence and Logistics, plus offices for a

few Under Secretaries of the Army occupy the outer 'E' ring.

I worked in the 'D' ring. The plane went all the way through

the 'C' ring and damaged the 'B' ring. To give you an idea

of the size of the building, a walk around the 'E' ring of

Pentagon is over a mile long. Five stories above ground and

the Defense Department admits to two stories below ground. I

can't write about F and G rings and such.

The Army is going through a 'telephone muster.' Basically,

all the service personnel assigned to Headquarters Company,

Department of the Army (HQDA) are supposed to call in if

they're alive. Company? Right. Back in the early 80's, the 'company,' usually

a unit with 120 to 200 bodies, was

several thousand strong. Each 'Office of the Deputy Chief

of Staff for [whatever]' acted like it's own headquarters

company, approving and managing payroll and leave. Many of

the records of who was on leave were probably in offices that

were destroyed. In addition, there were civilian employees

of the Defense Department, contractors doing work, and who

knows how many others. It may take a week or more to get an

accurate casualty count.

Some good news. All the kids left in after-school programs

here in Falls Church were picked up by family. Our human

services folks had been worried about dealing with orphans.

COG met. All government offices will be open tomorrow,

including The Pentagon. Congress intends to carry on, too.

I'll be back at work for another 12 or so.

Although he may not get them for a while, e-mail encouragement

can be sent to Steve Souder, Director, Arlington County

Emergency Coordination Center, at ssouder@... . And

I didn't give you his e-mail. You found it at

http://www.vaapco-vena.org/apco/officers.html

Always take good care of yourself and yours,

R J 'Tree' Greenwood

Falls Church & Catlett VA

doctree@...

doctree@... on 911-Talk

rgreenwood@...

Join 18 million Eudora users by signing up for a free Eudora Web-Mail account at

http://www.eudoramail.com