Incident Command Post - Sierra Vista Buena High School

Staging - SV Service Center Parking Lot

American Red Cross Office - SV

Fort Huachuca MARS Station

Hospitals - Cochise County

Benson Hospital, Bisbee Copper Queen Hospital, Douglas SEAMC, RW Bliss Medical Center, SV Regional Health Center, Wilcox Northern Cochise Hospital

Hospitals - Pima County

Eldorado Hospital, Kino Medical, Northwest Hospital, St Joseph's Hospital

St Mary's, Tucson Heart, Tucson Medical Center, University Medical Center

VA Hospital

Hospitals - Santa Cruz County

Nogales - Holy Cross

Red Cross (SV) Office

Pima County RACES

Sierra Vista Police Dept

The simulation included a series of three small bombs exploding under the bleachers at the SV Buena High School football field. A total of simulated 93 dead and injured provided the backdrop for the exercise. An initial safety briefing and assignments were conducted at the Cochise Amateur Radio Assn club site before members were deployed to their various assignments. A representative of the AZ Department of Public Safety (SGT Fero) acted as the Incident Commander and was assisted by the County RACES Officer (Bob Hollister) as the exercise controller. The Cochise County RACES/ARES team was activated through a telephonic page and the county emergency response van was deployed to the east parking lot of Buena High School and a command post was established. Also present at the scene was the chairman of the Cochise County Local Emergency Planning Committee Dr. Reg Campbell and Mr. Bob Bobar, Cochise County Emergency Services Coordinator. Traffic included relay of information to various hospitals concerning transport of injured and arranging for disposition of dead. During the exercise, an additional unexploded bomb was located in the area causing a request for an explosive ordnance demolition team to be requested. The exercise ran for approximately 3 hours. A public service announcement was released through the Cochise County Sheriff's Public Information Officer to radio stations and news media prior to the exercise to ensure members of the public hearing the radio traffic on scanners would not be unduly alarmed.

4. Emergency Power Use - The Mobile Incident Command site was operated off generators.

5. Weather - Sunny, cool and breezy. Weather was not a factor in this operation

VHF - The following repeaters were used successfully: Mule Mtn (146.76), Mule Mtn (147.02), Mt Lemon (146.88). There were difficulties reaching the Willcox hospital and we probably should have used Heliograph (146.90) to fill that gap. The VHF digital connect to Mt. Lemon (145.10) was not reliable during this exercise. This may have based on local equipment or operator inexperience.

UHF - Lemon (448.550) The Incident command site could not access the Mt Lemmon 440 repeater. In a real emergency, traffic could have been relayed via the closed CACTUS UHF repeater system as there is an MOU for this purpose but used during this exercise.

HF - 40 Meters - Attempted but difficulty finding a clear frequency to use. 75 meters was used but propagation did not support a direct link between Pima County and Cochise. A relay was established with a Santa Cruz county station and traffic could have been passed using that relay. Since VHF was reliable, the decision was made not to maintain the 75 meter link. Two voice messages were relayed by VHF to a MARS Liaison to process through MARS HF digital system. That was successful. A direct HF digital connect to the MARS Gateway was also accomplished and traffic could have been relayed using the MARS digital network.

a. Agency Advance Coordination - Although care had been taken to ensure all hospitals and participating were notified in advance of the exercise, some hospitals were still ill prepared and the information did not get to on-duty staff. This caused some confusion on the day of the exercise when radio operators arrived on the scene but agency personnel were not quite sure how to deal with the radio operators (Bisbee Copper Queen, SV Regional Health, SV Police Dept). A couple quick phone calls quickly overcame this issue and radio operators were allowed appropriate access to radios and facilities. Possible solution is improved public relations effort and more frequent exercises to ensure staff members are aware of who we are and the function we serve at their facility.

b. Equipment problems - At three locations the operators were faced with equipment problems to solve before operations could begin. At one location (SEAMC) the antenna connector had been cut off during a relocation of equipment. At another, Red Cross) the power connector to the radio appeared to have been severed. Later it was determined that the operators attempted to hook up the wrong radio. At a third (Bisbee Copper Queen), the radio failed upon power up. In each of these situations, the ingenuity and flexibility of assigned operators allowed the problem to be overcome. It is important that all operators going to this type assignment have a backup plan. In some cases, a spare radio in the vehicle provided the solution. A small tool kit with spare connectors and a soldering iron are invaluable. Spare antennas (magnetic mount, etc) are always a good idea.

c. Mobile Command Post Desense - Over the last few exercises, it has been noted that the simultaneous use of two or more VHF radios from the mobile command post in close proximity causes desense to the other radios in use. During this exercise, it was particularly noticeable because we were using two amateur band frequencies (146.88 146.76 with high power (50-75 watt) radios and antennas only 6 ft away from each other. We provided a partial solution by remoting the second antenna an additional 25 ft away using one of our portable antenna kits. Had the second radio been on the public service band (155.xxx) instead of the amateur band, the remote solution would have been adequate to solve the problem.

d. Mobile Command Post Noise Levels - During this high energy exercise, there was considerable radio traffic and discussion going on. None of the ERV radios are currently equipped with earphones. It is recommended that switch boxes be fabricated to allow easy access to plug in earphones and be able to switch quickly to speaker when other persons may need to hear specific conversations.

a. Cooperation - Once some of the initial issues were addressed at each location, the staff members at all agencies should be commended for their general helpful attitude and desire to help make this work.

b. Training - It is obvious that this type of training is valuable for both the radio operators and the supported agencies to gain the trust and experience that will help us get through such incidents that we must prepare ourselves for. One only needs to witness the events of 9/11 and the bombing at the college in Illinois and the more recent bombing in Bali and other locations around the world that there are people who wish to do us harm. We may not be able to stop them completely, but we can mitigate the impact they have on us if we are prepared to react to these type incidents.

c. Individual Experience - I believe that everyone who participated learned a valuable lesson or more and will be taking steps to improve their own operating techniques, their personal radio setups, and their deployment kits.

9. Closing comment - I wish to thank each of the participants, individually and the agencies they represent for their support for this exercise.

Particpants

Cochise County Participants

Cochise County Incident Command Team - Vince Fero AA7JB (IC), Bob Hollister N7INK (Exercise Controller)

Mobile Command Post - Charles Morris N7DQS, Peggy Morris KC7LCE, Lee Ilse KD7OED, Pat Thies KD7HAB, Dale Chidester N3HAL

Staging - Hal Thomas WD8DOM

Sierra Vista Police Department - Juanita Portz KK7WA, Floyd Sharp K7LPJ

Sierra Vista Regional Health Center - Bob Rice K7HVV, Danny Brown KD7LBZ

RW Bliss Army Health Center - Dick Mitterlehner K7MIT, Larry Warren KF7TJ

Sierra Vista Red Cross - Grant Hays WB6OTS

Benson Hospital - Sam Sample K7VVC

Bisbee Copper Queen - Tom Huntoon KC7WKT, Ev Wittig WB7VNF

Douglas SEAMC - Barbara Heck KC7ZND, Jim Ulmer KC7THU, Steve Mitchell KD7GQZ

Willcox Northern Community, Jim Walden KB7TAL

MARS Liaison - D. "Smitty" Smith KK7VE

Pima County Participants

Pima County Operations Center

Ray Bass K7OMR

Chuck Michels KB7RFI

Roger Schroeder WB7DIW

Pima County Communications Van

Ted Willis AA7HX

Dan Donnelly KC7VDA

Linda Donnelly KD7FRQ

Chris Kemsley KD7QIS

Tucson Hospitals

El Dorado Hospital

Cary Fishman WB2BSJ

Charles Scarborough AC7LU

Tucson Heart Hospital

Merle Hutton WA7JCK

Northwest Hospital

Norm Martin K7OLD

Jenise Martin K7EMT

Tucson Medical Center

Michael Leeming K2HLW

TR Reynolds KC7UGM

University Medical Center

Ted Parker N7YUD

St. Joseph's Hospital

Newell Whetstone KD7MCX

St. Mary's Hospital

Walt Rieke K7KYW

Doris Rieke KC7AQ

Kino Community Hospital

Ron Kalish N7SPW

William Pilling K7VIP

Veterans Administration Hospital

Terry Godoy KC7INK

Dan Schipper N9NLX

Santa Cruz EOC - Leo Swatloski - W7JPI