"Reprinted with
permission from CQ Amateur Radio magazine, January 2002 issue. Copyright CQ
Communications, Inc."
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For the past two
months we have been reporting on the events of September 11 th In
the November issue we presented an overview of amateur radio
response to the hijacking of four commercial airliners that crashed
into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and a field in western
Pennsylvania. Last month we focused on the activity in New York
City. This month we look at the amateur radio response in
Washington, D.C. and Somerset County, Pennsylvania.
At the Pentagon
A symbol of American might and the hub of the
United States Department of Defense had been damaged by a com-
mercial airliner flying into the building. ARRL Northern Virginia
Section Eme- rgency Coordinator Tom Gregory, N4NW, said ARES
operators provided logistical support between the Salvation Army's
relief and recovery effort on site and the agency's Arlington
headquarters. The Salvation Army has been providing food and
refreshments to the crews engaged in the Pentagon investigation and
recovery operations.
Paul Konigsburg, K3MZ, of Great
Falls, Virginia participated in the amateur radio support on
September 14th. He provides a good insight into what it was like to
be at the disaster site for a day and tells of the help that he and
other hams provided. Paul picks up the story.
Setting the Stage
As I rode in the Salvation Army
van, I first saw the gouge in the Pentagon. It looked similar to
what I had seen on TV. As we drove around the parking lot, I saw
three dogs resting on the grass. I was taken to a spot in the south
parking lot and was told to get my badge. Many people were waiting
in line to get badges. They were staring at the hole in the side of
the Pentagon some 200 feet away. It smelled like a fire that had
been recently put out. There were several gener- ators running next
to us in line, so the burn smell mixed with exhaust. Heavy machinery
was moving in and out. There were nearly 1000 local, state, and
federal police, includ- rng the FBI, the National Transportation
Safety Board, the Secret Service, and the Bureau of Alcohol,
Tobacco, and Firearms.
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A Salvation Army tent set up to feed all the workers
in the restricted area. They even had dog treats available for the
K9s.
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There had to be 600 rescue people at the site.
There were fire fighters from Montgomery County, Maryland, as well
as Arlington and Fairfax Counties, Virginia. There were people who
had "Urban Search and Rescue" on their shirts and hats. Some
people's attire just said "Rescue." There were GI's in white suits
and yellow boots going into and coming out of the
building.
While I was waiting in line, the three
dogs I had seen resting were walking with their handlers into the
crevice of the Pentagon. Meanwhile there were others working at the
site. There were construction people who could run the heavy
machinery to remove the debris, men to drive trucks to haul the
debris, and others who could install temporary wood bracing to
stabilize the building. Meanwhile, Secretary of Defense Donald
Rumsfeld walked past us clasping his hands together and smiling for
support. Fifteen minutes later I saw a strange sight. Military
people were bivouacked on the grass and in the parking lot at the
Pentagon. Many of them were putting on the white suits and going
into the building. I later learned the white suits kept the men away
from airplane fuel contamination and the decaying bodies.
A Large Support
Operation
There were at least 2000 people
working at this crash site, and they all needed to be fed. The
Salvation Army had set up four feeding centers, two outside the
restricted area and two inside. The amateurs relayed information to
and from the various canteens. |
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Many messages were of the form, "Need 50 meals at
site 1," or "Need gasoline at site 2." My job was to shadow one of
the Salvation Army Captains who went among all the sites. Messages
were passed on a directed net.
Noise!
From a radio perspective, the
area was very noisy. I saw the military had set up wire- less
communications, and from the size of their antenna, it looked like
they were using a frequency between our 2 meter and 70 centimeter
bands. On the amateur frequen- cies there were a lot of beeps,
squawks, chirps, and other forms of radio interference. There was
also a lot of audible noise from the generators. You needed an
in-the-ear type earphone, and many messages still had to be
repeated.
Food
I went back to the south parking
lot and noticed that both McDonalds and Burger King had set up
mobile kitchens. You could walk up and get burgers and fries. Also
in the parking lot were hundreds of cases labeled "Frito-Lay." There
were squads of soldiers and Marines distributing these chips. There
were also piles of socks, sweatshirts, underwear, and flashlights.
Both Costco and Wal-Mart had trailers there, too. I saw a pallet in
the parking lot filled with snacks for dogs. Food was kept in
refrigerated trailers. There was one trailer that had hundreds of
bags of ice. Everywhere there
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were coolers filled with water, Gatorade, and
sodas. When I asked the person I was shad- owing, Capt. Burton, he
said that this was all donated. People were friendly and
helpful.
Standards To Be Met
There was a health inspector who
looked at all the food. He was very concerned about the food being
prepared on site. He saw some chili and wanted to make sure the tem-
perature was above 180°F. He cleaned off his thermometer and stuck
it in the chili. The temperature rose past 1800 and I couldn't read
it anymore because the steam fogged the dial. He wanted to make sure
the chick- en was cooked through. He took a piece and ripped
it up. The meat fell off the bone. It was thoroughly cooked. While
he was doing his job and while he was telling them to not reuse
utensils and other basic food health care, I was thinking to myself,
"Here we have people who have fed folks from Hurricane Andrew and
lots of disasters since then. They have kept people fed and given
them good food for years. They have worked in hotter temperatures
and in colder temperatures. They know how to keep hot things hot and
cold things cold!"
Volunteer Organizations
Working Together
I could sense a little tension between
the Salvation Army and the Red Cross, so I asked a Salvation Army
person and she said that they had been there first. The Salvation
Army had set up two feeding stations and many tents by the time the
Red Cross set up its first tent. She said that the Red Cross is
associated with the military, so it was getting all the glory. The
organizations still worked
together. When the Red Cross people
came and asked for ice, the Salvation Army per- son merely asked how
many bags, and then proceeded to give them, cheerfully, the bags of
ice.
Capt. Burton, a few other Salvation
Army folks, and I loaded up a truck with drinks and snacks. We then
delivered it to station 1. I helped unload the truck. While Capt.
Burton was talking to some of his people, I got to talk to one of
the folks in the white suits. I asked him, "What was it like in
there?" He thought for a few moments. Then he said, "Imagine a junk
yard that has been blown up."
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Station 4 was near the main supplies
and had most of the Salvation Army officers. At Station 4 an FBI
agent asked for some ice and water. Capt. Burton got a round cooler,
the ice and water, and delivered it to the side of the restricted
area. There were dozens of FBI agents. There was also a temporary
chain-link fence with black plastic on the chain. I asked Capt.
Burton what was behind there. He said that is where they were
placing the corpses. I was glad it was covered.
Later
in the evening some firefighters came by and asked for some hot
food. We put trays together and then went into the restricted area.
When you are in a cart or in a vehicle, dogs sniff you for bombs.
This time the MPs said they would do the sniffing. The firefighter
said to the MP that he would give him some food, but he needed it
all for his men. I asked this firefighter what it was like inside.
He said that it was starting to smell rotten. I asked if there was
any chance of finding people alive. He shook his head no. He thanked
us for the food and then took it to his unit.
I would
say that the mood of most of the workers was grim mixed with a
little exhaus- tion. I didn't see much hope on their faces. They
were doing their jobs and were going to let the emotions have their
time later.
The warm day was now turning into a cool
evening. The calls on the radio changed to requests for sweatshirts,
socks, and under- wear. I guess most of the people, men and women,
just changed their underwear and |
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went back to work. A call came on the radio that
Station 1 needed dog treats.
This was a day when I
got to witness first hand some of the worst of mankind. The
destruction of that part of the Pentagon was horrific. I thought to
myself that as bad as this is, New York must be twenty times worse.
I also got to see that some of D.C.'s products-politics and
bureaucracy-survived. I also got to see some of the best of
humanity-people volunteering their time and special skills; people
doing all they could to rescue their fellow man; people giving food
and clothing; corporations giving their products to help the cause.
I realized that these specialized rescue people need ordinary folks
to feed them, clothe them, and give them fresh batteries. I was glad
to be a part of this. I was honored that I could
help.
And yes, the dogs got their treats.
Logistics
Since the noise level was so high, operators were
rotated in and out of the immediate vicinity of the attack as
frequently as possible. "There's the emotion of it, and there's the
tremendous amount of noise, and it's very grating on you because you
can hardly hear the radio to communicate," the ARRL's Gregory
explained. In addition, the cellular telephone network was swamped,
and because the Pentagon remained open,
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The western Pennsylvania crash site was in the middle
of a field. There were no survivors. (Picture courtesy Salvation
Army Disaster Services)
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there was a lot of other RF in the
vicinity, which further complicated matters.
"I found
that it took me a few minutes to realize the gravity of what was
going on and the importance of what we hams are doing in our own
small way to help out," Gregory told the ARRL. "The devastation of
that building is awesome. It puts things in perspective and it
certainly made me proud to be an amateur radio operator and serve
the people of the United States by offering this support."
Western Pennsylvania
While most of the news media focused on New York
and Washington, D.C., another aircraft crashed into a field in
Somerset County, Pennsylvania. This disaster was much different from
the other two in that there were no survivors. The FBI declared the
crash site a crime scene and secured the entire area. The plane did
not come down in a populated area.
The Western
Pennsylvania Division of the Salvation Army Disaster Services went
to full activation on September 11 at about 10:30 AM. By 11 :00 AM
three canteen units were headed to the site. In addition, the
Salvation Army Amateur Radio Team (SATERN) was dispatched from
Pittsburgh. On the way to the scene an emergency net was established
on several 2 meter repeaters, said Eric Hegerle, N3VOC. Three
repeaters were remotely linked together, forming a direct radio
connection from the Army's |
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Pittsburgh headquarters to the plane crash site
some 80 miles away.
Dave Kleber, KB3FXI, was one of
the first SATERN operators from Pittsburgh to arrive at the crash
site. After assessing the situation with the Salvation Army, he made
contact with the net control. "The repeater link was fantastic and
worked flawlessly," said Kleber. "I'm not sure how I would have
handled the job without that local repeater. I was equipped with a
homebrew 3-element beam and my 50 watt Kenwood TM- 261, but I would
have had a heck of a time, at best, hitting the 146.61 machine
direct from the site and I would have been tied down to my vehicle
the entire day. The repeater link allowed me to do the vast majority
of my radio work with my Yaesu FT -50
handheld."
Kleber handled traffic from
the site until 11 PM. He said most of the traffic involved messages
to some of the Salvation Army leaders at the site from the
Pittsburgh Headquarters and also messages in and out of a staging
area that was closer to the crash site than the one at which he
was.
Amateur radio operators from the Somerset County
area also became active, assisting the SATERN team without
hesitation in shadowing non- licensed personnel and communicating
for the canteen units.
Local hams also provided
communications between the Pennsylvania Emergency Management
Agency's Western headquarters, which was op-
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erating on 75 meters, and the Somerset County EOC
on 2 meters. County Emergency Management Director Richard Lohr,
N3VFG, placed hams on "standby" late Tuesday evening until early
Wednesday morning. The hams were again placed on standby status
Wednesday and were asked to remain alert. Jim Crowley, NJ3T, RACES
Radio Officer for Somerset County, said, "Preliminary communications
between the EMA EOC and the crash site EOC was established by our
RACES/ ARES volunteers quickly and professionally. Volunteers were
poised to help continue these communications."
An Overview
Since the November issue we have tried to relay
to readers some of the work, emotion, and dedication of the hundreds
of public-service-minded hams involved in the September 11 disaster.
We couldn't have done it without so many of you sharing your
experiences with us. This month I would like especially to thank
K3MZ, N3VOC, and KB3FXI for sharing their stories with
us.
The events of September 11 show us that amateur
radio plays an important role in emergency communications whether
it's in the middle of a field or in New York City. The first
communications between Westchester County, New York and New York
City were via amateur radio operators in the County Emergency
Operations Center. Ac- cording to a report on the Westchester
Emergency Communications Association reflector, a senior county
official pointed out that things were so bad in New York City that
all normal means of communications had broken down and for a while
only R.A.C.E.S could get messages through.
Our lives
have changed since September 11. If you are in a city or near an
airport, you routinely see a military uniform. High-level alert
warnings have become routine. The threat of anthrax contamination
has become routine in some places as post offices and mail- rooms
are closed, tested, and in some cases
decontaminated.
The role of amateur radio emergency
communications has changed. In the past, much of our emergency
communications was weather related. In many cases we had some
warning. Now more than ever we have to be ready-for any- thing-at a
moment's notice.
Do you have a story that you
would like to share with us? Drop us a note. Until next time. . .
73, Bob, WA3PZO
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