Impressions of TOPOFF 4
Over the last three days, I’ve been heavily engaged in the government’s multi-state, multi-agency anti-terrorism drill know as TOPOFF, or “top officials”.
The exercise, designed to stress and train senior leaders rather than just the first responders on the ground, is made to look as realistic as possible, given the type of scenario involved. The exercise this year spanned three states and territories - Guam, Oregon and Arizona. All three experienced a simulated Radiological Dispersal Device or RDD, in the form of an explosion that sent powdered Cesium 137 into the atmosphere. Cesium 137 is commonly found in x-ray type machines, and is potentially lethal to those who ingest it or are exposed in close proximity for extended periods of time.
The exercise cost the U.S. government something like $25 million to put on, and is an annual event. The agencies I saw involved included the National Guard, Red Cross, nearly all affected cities in the scenario, state police, county police and HAZMAT, FBI, Department of Homeland Security, emergency management agencies from city to state levels, Department of Energy, Coast Guard; and many, many others.
The exercise even included its own cable news station - Virtual News Network - that had Forrest Sawyer as the senior anchor and many on-scene reporters in the different states interviewing officials on the progress of the “incident”. As it turns out, I was interviewed twice myself, as my unit would have been heavily involved in the scenario presented. Since it wasn’t real, I had to do some play acting, but I’m told I looked and sounded good (I missed the airing).
Several large corporations in my city also were involved. For example, Intel Corporation also ran its own Emergency Operations Center (EOC) and worked on its business continuity plans should one or more of their production plants be shut down as a result of the fall-out. They were faced with the same problems most businesses or agencies would have faced - including large numbers of employees leaving town or otherwise failing to show up to work.
Overall, I thought the exercise was beneficial. There were a ton of artificialities that wouldn’t have really happened, but I know at least my state’s Joint Forces Headquarters got a work out. For my own part, I got to see how my little unit would have been involved in an incident of a grand scale, and how we’d have to integrate out-of-state follow-on forces to assist our efforts.
I’d love to tell you what went right, what went wrong, and how well agencies performed under pressure. However, there was an effort to keep agency performances in a bit of a close-hold, so as not to inform our potential enemies where are weaknesses are. I can understand that. A quick look to this blog’s reader locations easily tells you not just people friendly to the United States read this blog. So, I’ll let the evaluation end here.
Category :
Tags :
Similar Posts:
- My team plays in Vigilant Guard
- You couldn’t pay me enough
- Terrorists attack Hindus in India
- Man arrested for DWC - Driving While Christian
- Couldn’t blog, was on a "mission"
- Iranian police crack-down against women continues
- Are terrorists targeting churches in America?
- Who I’m honoring on this Memorial Day
- Matthews tries to trash the National Guard
- NYT running out of ways to undercut the war?
I got some interesting pictures and press releases from the Oregon National Guard on the TOPOFF - sounds like quite an experience to be involved in it… Thank you!
Holy crap….i checked the blog map…that’s crazy…