Wednesday, November 7, 2001
|
Wednesday, November 7, 2001 |
|
Atlanta's military personnel help out victims SPECIAL TO THE CITIZEN
Shortly after the events of Sept. 11 unfolded, Maj. Gen. Colby Broadwater, acting commander of the First U.S. Army headquartered at Fort Gillem in Forest Park, activated a response plan that involves First Army units known as defense coordinating elements. The headquarters, staffed by Atlanta area residents, including many from Fayette County, has been heavily involved in response to the disaster. "Whenever there's a crisis like this, it's part of First Army's mission to send a colonel and staff to coordinate federal assistance ... and make sure they have the staffing and equipment they need," explained Col. Rob Saxon of Peachtree City, public information officer for First Army. Saxon and a handful of other officials from Fort Gillem traveled to New York to make sure things were going according to plan. The Forest Park headquarters has responsibility for coordinating federal assistance for disasters in the eastern half of the United States, Saxon said, under a program known as the Federal Response Plan. A defense coordinating element is a rapidly deployable unit, headed by a defense coordinating officer, that provides the Federal Emergency Management Agency unique Department of Defense assistance to help victims get their lives back to normal as soon as possible. First Army deployed two such units with completely difference missions. The DCE in New York City was was ordered "to establish the DCE, initially in Edison, N.J., and be prepared to move the operation to New York City," said Col. Kevin Connors, the defense coordinating officer and commander of the 2nd Brigade, 78th Infantry Division, at Ft. Drum, N.Y. and one of 13 such units within First U.S. Army that provide training support to Reserve Component units. Connors said he and other brigade leaders were at Ft. Dix, N.J., preparing 29th Infantry Division units for deployment when someone came into the room and told him what had happened in New York City. In only a few hours, the 25-person DCE was fully operational in the 78th Division headquarters building in Edison, N.J., which was the staging area for the DCE, FEMA and Corps of Engineers, prior to their deployment to New York City. Following the very early days of the disaster, the DCE was relocated to Pier 90 in Manhattan as an integral part of FEMA's Disaster Field Office. Since its activation, the DCE has coordinated Department of Defense support personnel and equipment to help with the search, rescue and recovery efforts at the World Trade Center disaster site. "We have provided support transportation for urban search and rescue teams from around the country to our base support installation (McGuire Air Force Base, N.J.) and into New York City," said Connors. "We also brought in master breachers to help cut the massive steel girders and pilots to fly helicopters around the disaster site." A few days after the disaster, the USNS Comfort (a Navy hospital ship) docked next to the disaster field office at Pier 90, bringing the total number of personnel who were under Connors' operational control to more than 450. A second DCE was deployed near the Pentagon, where things were completely different, according to the defense coordinating officer for the Pentagon disaster site, Col. Del Turner. Within hours of activation, Turner and 10 soldiers under his command had established a DCE in Arlington, Va., to provide support to the search, rescue and recovery operations at the Pentagon. Some of the defense personnel deployed to New York helped train the civilians in unique skills and equipment that the military had available, said Connors. "We brought in master breachers, experts at cutting steel, who began training the firemen, policemen and FEMA personnel on the use of a special cutting torch," said Connors. "A normal cutting torch works at about 1,500 degrees. But the torch used by the master breacher works at about 8,000 degrees. It makes the process go much easier and faster. But, it also takes special training to use it properly." The military also brought robots, infrared cameras and special Doppler radar units to the site. "The infrared cameras were used to pinpoint places where possible survivors could be located," said Connors. "Almost every search and rescue team used them." "We also used a special laser Doppler radar that monitored movement of the surrounding buildings as debris was being removed in order to alert workers of a possible collapse," he added. "The robotics specialists helped by sending the DoD-controlled robots into holes that the city punched into the streets," said Connors. "The robots were looking at the slurry wall for cracks." The slurry wall was built by the New York Department of Design and Construction under the site of the World Trade Center to prevent the river water from entering the towers once they were built. According to Connors, in addition to the enormous scope of the search, rescue and recovery missions, the fact that they were dealing with a crime scene set this disaster apart from any other a First U.S. Army DCE had previously been called upon to support. "It was a crime scene with no warning," he said. "For a hurricane, you have sufficient time to prepare. This wasn't just a disaster where a building collapsed. It was a 'war zone' where we were attacked. We had to get focused in a much different manner." All the missions were hard ones, but helping the citizens of New York City to get back to normal was the hardest, especially for the DoD personnel actually on site. They had to help remove the remains. No one really liked going down there, but the DoD personnel were there every day doing their jobs. In this respect, the two sites were very similar. Connors said the units performed well. "We are proud that in our own way, we helped people and our country get back to normal," said Connors. "We got DoD assets into the disaster area to help the best way we could."
|
||