Interesting perspective

[travelinman]

The following e-mail is from an old boss of mine. He is retired Army Signal Corps (Lt. Colonel I think) and spent a number of years at NATO command. He is now an active HAM radio Operator and I thought some of you might find his e-mail interesting.

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As you might suspect, I have been closely monitoring the Hurricane Katrina disaster.

While the immediate response was marked by some confusion and poor command & control by ALL local, state & federal agencies, I can say that from monitoring a variety of emergnecy commo frequencies and channels, that New Orleans and La officials did not seem to be in control or know how to coordinate even very basic concerns. (While they had no electric, neither did other impacted Gulf Coast areas) I heard numerous offers of assistance to various La State Emergency Operating Centers (EOC's) being rejected or at best ignored. I heard a lack of response from the La State Police, as opposed to the Miss State Police who established & manned various Command Posts, Traffic Control Posts, etc. And FEMA & LEMA (La Emerg Mgmgt Agency) seemed to be absolutely clue-less! LTG Honre, NORTHCOM's JTF Katrina Commander, was chomping at the bit to unleash military support but was not able to do so due to "posse comotitus" and other legal constraints. Fortunately, those hurdles have now been removed.

The US Coast Guard, whose New Orleans facility & personnel were severly impacted, established and alternate Command Post in St Louis, which had commo with the La units. I heard scores of messages that somehow came from or were about people trapped in their attics or on their roofs, that were relayed to ham radio opeators througout the region, who in turn relayed the specific info to the CG CP via telephone who in turn vectored the rescue choppers to the locations concerned.

Amateur Radio emergency networks are still the primary means of commo during the initial stages of a disaster. Even now, they are still the only commo at many sites. While the Signal Corps is setting up commo for the massive military organization assembling down there, Ham Radio opeators will continue to provide critical communications for quite some time, even as limited cell phone capabilities are restored.

While it may appear to be a bit late in arriving, the web sites listed below are filled with details of massive relief and support efforts being provided by the US military.


http://www.defenselink.mil/home/feat...index_new.html

http://www.army.mil/katrina/

Politics aside, we should all be proud of our men & women in uniform who are responding, many at great personal sacrifice upon recently returning from combat deployments, to assist in this unprecedented disaster!

<font color="#FFFFAA" size="1">[ September 06, 2005 08:08 AM: Message edited by: travelinman ]</font>

[jumper69]

Lousisana is a boil on the ass of our country and should be lanced. Can't we sell it back the fucking french?