[BC] Omaha detonates ham gear

[George Brand]

Tom is  on the ball here.... About 7 years ago I was co-ordinator for all
volunteer communications at a drill involving the area High School. It was
well done, we had "smoke" pouring out of the building with the firefighters
and rescue crews working very well together rescuing the students (all
volunteers) I was in the EOC with the EC for the County and we were all
pretty pleased with everything when the call came out "we found a bomb in
the cafeteria"
The EC and I looked at each other with that W.T.F. look on our faces as
there was no bomb in the plan. I asked one of my people what he could see as
they were escorting  students out very quickly. From his description I had
the EC stop the call to the State Police. At the debriefing I thanked the
worker who gave the heads up for their attention to detail. The items that
looked like C4 explosives to him, from his military experience, were
actually my spare battery packs for my handy talkies. They were stacked on a
shelf, near the center of the drill. IMO, an ideal place for a bomb. If the
State bomb squad has blown them, it would have been for a doggone good
reason.
We've had people recover unexploded armament thinking they were fakes or
practice shells from the National Guard. The message becomes clear when the
State Police explode them.

George  WA8SCO

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>When a suspicious object is encountered, to err
>on the side of caution and safety prevails. One
>cannot reasonably expect every officer to be
>qualified to instantly properly identify every
>object he/she comes in contact with.