"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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