Looking back — Yet forward, too
Reflections on 9/11
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A couple decades ago, a good friend of mine was talking with one of his neighbors, a relatively recent immigrant from Eastern Europe, about politics. The immigrant asked my friend why Americans seemed so naïve, even ignorant, about the dangers in the world. (This was back when the Iron Curtain was still strong and tight.) My friend replied that he thought two wide oceans and two long, peaceful borders had a lot to do with it.
Seven years ago, we learned what we should not have had to learn, that borders and oceans don’t matter as much as they did in generations past, that as much as we love and admire our own country, there are people who hate us enough that they’ll gladly die to harm us.
In memory of 9-11-01, Homeland1 has asked a variety of our colleagues and contributors to give us their thoughts on this sad and momentous anniversary.
— Scott Baltic, Senior Editor, Homeland1.com
Preparing elected officials better
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Perhaps it’s time we recalled that shortly before 9/11 there was an exercise in New York City. It was held in the harbour area in the same location that eventually became the EOC after the collapse of the World Trade Center. The mayor was present for the exercise and asked the key questions, questions he needed answers to on 9/11.
One of the major problems in exercises is often that elected officials do not take part. Then they assume command positions during major emergencies. The mayor of New York City, unlike many other mayors, took an exercise seriously, and the result showed in almost all that he did on and after 9/11. This is something that needs wider attention, because it is an object lesson for other elected officials.
— Joe Scanlon, professor emeritus and director of the Emergency Communications Research Unit, Carleton University, Ottawa, Ont., Canada
Educating and Communicating
Having spent the first three years following 9/11 within U.S. Customs and then in the Department of Homeland Security as a senior executive, I have had the opportunity to see where we as a nation have come. Now as a college professor teaching homeland security, I am encouraged by the interest and enthusiasm of young men and women who are selecting career fields in homeland security and emergency preparedness.
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Just as our nation must engage in changing the culture within radical Islam where individuals are inspired to attack our way of life, we must also change the culture of America in realizing that we are vulnerable not only to acts of terrorism, but to disasters of all types, and it will require a concerted national effort in preventing and responding to these disasters.
How we communicate the multitude of issues across all segments of society, from average citizens to private industry, to state and local governments and within federal agencies is a never-ending challenge. Websites like Homeland1 will play an ever-increasing role in these efforts.
The ability to share best practices will prove to be critically important and I encourage all to do so. My children and grandchildren are depending on all of us to unify our efforts in keeping America prepared and safe.
— Col. William H. Parrish, USMC (Ret.)
Associate Professor, Homeland Security
Virginia Commonwealth University
The Importance of Training
On September 11, 2001, i was looking to get away from the public safety training arena. After 9/11, I know that I could not. On September 11, 2001, I was in my car directly in front of the North Tower. I saw, felt, smelled the planes. I still can't really talk about that day. But I knew that I had to put my background, training and experience to use and make sure this never happened again. I spent nine months working various functions at Ground Zero. I lost many friends that day, and to this day, many of us who worked in the pit continue to suffer lingering medical problems. Too many brave men and women and the sacrifice we made there is going unremembered.
— Paul G. Seldes, CHS-III, FPEM
ntb group, LLC
Spirit and Forgetfulness
It has been seven years since the the second day in American history that will live in infamy. As I look at what has occurred since that day, I realize that a spirit of national pride has been taking over the American people. But I also realize that there are many Americans who have forgotten why that national pride has taken over their lives. The American culture has the habit of forgetting too quickly the atrocities that have befallen both ourselves and the world. I for one will never forget the tragic loss that befell humanity on this day.
— Glen Rudner, Hazardous Materials Officer
Virginia Department of Emergency Management
A New Culture of Cooperation
It was not the Army, Marines, Navy, or Air Force that were the first responders to the 9/11 attacks. It was firefighters, police officers, public works officials and health employees who were ultimately assisted by volunteers from all walks of life. Prior to this incident, emergency personnel at different levels of government hardly, if at all, knew each other. They also held few emergency exercises to sharpen their skills.
Since this time, emergency employees from different levels of government frequently hold meetings and conduct disaster exercises. First responders now have a keen sense of their respective roles when responding to both natural and man-made emergencies. Above all, those public officials responsible for first responders have learned that their organizations should be prepared for all emergencies, both natural and man-made.
Congratulations to first responders for working together, and getting to know each other, over the past seven years! Keep up the good work, and while we prepare for all emergencies, may our prudent preparations eliminate all deliberate man-made emergencies in the future.
— Roger L. Kemp, PhD, career city manager, and Fellow, The Academy of Political Science
Personal Inspiration
I’m sure that thousands of people have said, "September 11th changed my life." In my case, it was not because I lost someone close or worked on scene during recovery operations. I was an emergency room nurse at the time and my reaction was thinking about how the medical professionals would triage all the injured. The term "emergency management" was centered on the response activities after a disaster.
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Seven years ago, the response operations were followed by extensive recovery operations. This was followed by information disseminated to the public on how to prepare if another disaster occurred. From one individual’s focused, medical point of view, the term “emergency management” expanded from how to respond to an incident to an entire cycle of actions and reactions that is always in motion.
Grasping this concept at that time led to pursuing a master’s degree focusing on disaster management and leading me down a much different career path than nursing. September 11 changed my life.
— Jannine Wilmoth, RN, MPH
Chief, Emergency Preparedness Branch
Department of Emergency Management, Exercises and Training, Glendale, Ariz.
Some Second Thoughts for First Responders
It's been seven years since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Since then, mental health clinicians who have worked with law enforcement personnel and other first responders have learned that some of their conclusions from previous disaster scenarios have been on the mark, while others have required reconsideration.
Condensed and summarized, here are some lessons learned:
- People are different. Each person responds to a traumatic event with their own individual constellation of vulnerabilities and resiliencies, and not everyone who fails to shows the "standard" recovery pattern is behaving pathologically. Know yourself and know when to get help.
- Strategies are different. This is the corollary to the above. Some people need no help to recover from a traumatic critical incident, some need more help, and most require a few collegial or professional nudges in the right direction to get them back on an even emotional keel.
- Be proactive. First, for responders, don’t wait for stresses and symptoms to pile up and become unmanageable; get help when you feel you need it. In most cases, earlier intervention usually means less overall intervention needed. Second, for interveners, don’t wait for your customers to come to you; encourage public safety agencies to seek out members who need help and support them in getting it.
- Learn from it. In my courses, I like to use the abbreviation ITTS, for "It’s the training, stupid!" Another favorite catch-phrase is the 20/20/20 rule, or “20/20 hindsight = 20/20 insight = 20/20 foresight.” Any way you put it, the idea is to turn a toxic experience into something positive by learning something from it that you can use next time and pass on to others.
— Laurence Miller, Ph.D., clinical and forensic psychologist and law enforcement educator and trainer based in Boca Raton, Fla.
HSAS misused?
Four times in seven years, the Homeland Security Advisory System threat level has been above yellow, either for a specific sector or for all sectors, within 90 days of November elections. It's Orange (High) right now for commercial aviation. If that’s not a convenient coincidence, then critics are right, and the HSAS is nothing more than a sinister tool to incite fear among the populace for political gain.
— Douglas Page, Homeland1.com Technology Columnist
Preparedness Priorities
Seven years have passed since Sept. 11th, and although we’ve spent billions of dollars, there is still a question of how safe and prepared we are.
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Countless emergency agencies have received equipment that is state-of-the-art for chemical detection and hazardous materials response, yet have we become experts on preparing for a significant mass-casualty incident?
Mastering the little things makes handling the big incidents easier, but new high-tech equipment is much more exciting to train with rather than hammering the basics of something like learning triage. This is much like the fact that kids love to shoot baskets, but don’t want to do the dribbling drills.
A related thought is, when the new equipment needs replacing, will organizations be as eager to fund replacements if grant funding is no longer available? Don’t forget that the economy is slowing down, which means that sales tax revenues are down. If the funding had not been available in the first place, would you have put the item in your budget?
— Div. Chief Jim Sideras
Sioux Falls (S.D.) Fire Rescue
Family and Duty
On Sept. 10, 2001, Dave and I wrapped up teaching at a tactical conference in Calgary, Canada, and flew back to the United States that evening; Dave to Dallas, where he was the general manger of Calibre Press and working for the Law Enforcement Television Network, and me to Chicago, where I was the sergeant in charge of my agency’s Community Education/Crime Prevention Unit.
We were married but still living in two different states. I was about to announce my retirement from the police department and move to Dallas to take an academy position and continue my own work at LETN and Calibre Press. The world was a wonderful place for two well-employed newlyweds who had successfully blended two families into one and were about to embark on new personal and professional challenges.
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While getting ready for work on the morning of 09/11/01 with the TV news on as usual, I called Dave as soon as the first plane hit the World Trade Center. By 9:30 am, he was live on the air at LETN and I was rushing to work, a million things running through my mind. I sat with the rest of the Investigations Division in front of a television, watching as the towers fell, the Pentagon was hit, and Flight 93 went down in Pennsylvania.
Like most police departments, after the initial shock we all had to react and prepare. As information about origin of the attacks came out, I had a major concern for the Islamic center in our city, and by 4:00 pm we had volunteer women from various
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I fielded endless phone calls from parents and school personnel about additional programming and security concerns and began planning new programs to help the community feel safer. I also checked all of my gear, loaded up extra magazines, and made arrangements for my young daughter in case I couldn’t come home that night.
I did go home that night, and I held my 7-year-old daughter next to me while we watched the endless news reports and the replay of the attacks. I explained to her that this would be an important day in our history and that she needed to try to remember the images she was seeing on the TV. She wanted to know if more attacks would happen where we live. I told her I didn’t know, but that we’d leave that up to God and the military for right now. After I put her to bed, like many of you I just sat down and cried and cried and couldn’t seem to stop. Within a week, I had told my husband that I couldn’t possibly retire now; I needed to be a cop more than ever. I needed to be able to do something.
Dave also did something. He began to study radical Islam more than ever before. As lead instructor, he added a terrorism section to the Calibre Press Street Survival seminar. And he moved to Chicago, sacrificing his love of warm weather, concealed-carry laws and a two-minute commute to work so that I could continue to be a crime fighter and we could be a family all under one roof. Being a family seemed more important than ever before. It still is.
Many say that as a country we’ve forgotten the emotions, the lessons, and the true impact of the attacks of Sept. 11, and they would be right. But American law enforcement has not, and never will, forget that terrible day. As Dave says, we have added “terrorist” to the long list of dirtbags that we hunt every day, and we continue to stand ready to make the traffic stops, work the cases, and gather the intelligence that continues to help keep this nation safe from further attack. Happy hunting, our brothers and sisters; and never forget.
— Betsy Brantner Smith, police trainer, author and instructor for the Calibre Press Street Survival Seminar. Dave Smith is the Street Survival Seminar manager and lead instructor.
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