Re: A Challenge to the Violent and Depraved

[John Young <jya@pipeline.com>]

To buttress suggestions for simulating the OKC bombing, here's an SAIC 
press release of August 1997 on a training program for disaster handling:

SAIC AND TEEX TO PROVIDE ANTI-TERRORISM TRAINING TO 
FIRST RESPONDERS 

(MCLEAN, VA) Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) has 
signed an agreement with the Texas Engineering Extension Service (TEEX) 
to prepare civilian emergency responders for possible terrorist events. 
Under the agreement, SAIC and its teaming partners will provide training 
to firefighters and other first response personnel in the latest 
technologies for addressing chemical and biological terrorism. 

As the leader of the team, TEEX will hold training classes at Texas A&M 
University's Emergency Response Training Field at College Station, Texas, 
where firefighters and rescue workers will train in virtual reality 
simulators on the effects of chemical and biological weapons. TEEX, which 
is a member of the Texas A&M University System, annually provides training 
to 129,000 individuals and last year provided fire, rescue and hazardous 
materials training nationally and internationally to more than 28,000
responders. 

"The United States has been fortunate in that it has not had a successful 
terrorist attack perpetrated against it using biological or chemical agents," 
said G. Kemble Bennett, TEEX's CEO who oversees the 120-acre Brayton Fire 
Training Field. "However, experts agree that it is only a matter of time." 

"As a leader in chemical and biological warfare agent accident, response and 
assistance training for military and civilian emergency response agencies, 
SAIC can offer expert guidance to responders," said William L. Chadsey, 
senior vice president at SAIC. "Our company has provided emergency planning 
and consultative services to personnel and public service organizations 
worldwide." 

In September, U.S. Representative Curt Weldon (R-Pa.) is expected to 
introduce a bill in Congress to designate the training field at Texas 
A&M and its facilities as The National Training Center for Urban 
Search and Rescue. The new center is expected to feature building 
collapse simulators and a facility dubbed "Disaster City" to prepare 
responders to handle earthquakes and bombings in addition to chemical 
and biological agents. If approved, Rep. Weldon�s bill also is likely 
to facilitate the release of information from Bechtel Nevada at the 
Nevada Test Site about the handling of nuclear materials. 

Speaking at the signing ceremony, Fire Chief Gary Marrs of Oklahoma 
City, Okla., said, "The first responders in our communities, and 
specifically our firefighters, are tasked to respond and make a 
difference when disasters occur. Until the training and equipment,
utilizing the latest in technology, get down to the street level, we 
put our responders at an extreme disadvantage and endanger their lives. 
I am encouraged to see these types of cooperative efforts make this 
training and technology available to the men and women of the fire 
service who protect our cities daily." 

Marrs, who managed the fire and rescue mission at the bombing of the 
Alfred P. Murrah Building in Oklahoma City, chairs the Urban Search 
and Rescue Committee for the International Association of Fire Chiefs 
located in Fairfax, Va. 


http://www.saic.com/publications/news/aug97/news08-06-97.html