[EAS] [BC] Emergency Information

[Weiner, Kevin (CCI-Virginia)]

What Bill said:
"Yes, the problem is funding.  But the bigger problem is training.  If anything is not used for decades at a time nobody will remember how to use it."
"Having a good public warning system like EAS gathering dust does nobody any good."
"I've said this before but my U S Naval experience is that training is critical.  You don't want to be looking up instructions when water is up to your knees."

I cannot agree more, but I do have one small difference of opinion on that last item above. (Just for the fun of it, and because the US Coast Guard vs. US Navy friendly rivalry must live on.)

Au contraire mon frère. Anyone that has been thru REFTRA at Guantanamo Bay, or any other FTG for that matter knows, that if you do not have the CCF and DOCTRINE open, and if you are not pointing at the chapter and verse as you perform the actions you are already dead.

This goes for real world too. People love to use the "ship" metaphor (we are all on the ship together, getting off this sinking ship), ever wonder why? Because they are true. I was on many ships (ok, my Navy friends, yes, I know to you our highest displacement vessels were about the size of your lifeboats) but, the point is the same. By-The-Book works every time, and if you do not think you have time to get the book out you may be in the wrong job. During SSD while leaving dock for a 9 week North patrol and XBT run, we experienced an LP boiler explosion just after we broke-colors onboard the USCGC UNIMAK, and there was a subsequent stack fire. SSD is a time of perfectly choreographed total chaos on a ship. With all that going on and now a boiler explosion with injuries and fire, what to do. After the ship shook from the explosion no one was surprised when the bell clattered and "This is not a drill...FIRE-FIRE-FIRE in B2, R3 and R1 respond from DC Locker 3 - This is not a drill." echoed from the 1MC. The clattering bell along with other sounds GQ, CHEM, COLLISION was our "EAS".

What is my point? There is time to get the book out and follow it. That 'one thing' that in the heat of the moment that you may have overlooked during the massive conflagration could cost everything. In the above true sea-story the book did in fact cover that very contingency. I think we all agree that running drills is clearly indicated, and testing the EAS system is also clearly indicated. On ship, unless running EMCOM Alpha, the 'EAS' was tested every day, that included the three main alarms, and ship's whistle. Do emergency management centers drill every day, every shift? If not, why not? Also, testing EAS weekly feels about right, but are we just going through the motions; letting automation take this over, or are we observing and correcting? I get bored with the money argument. If you build a business that requires EAS, budget for it. Expect there to be future regulations and costs.

A US military ship will not sail if the EAS (proper name, General Alarms and Ship's whistle) are not working. You do not want to be the one to tell the CO that he cannot get underway because of a 3 cent fuse.

REFTRA = Refresher Training, Under as realistic conditions as possible
FTG = Fleet Training Group
CCF = Casualty Control Folder
SSD = Special Sea Detail broke colors = the moment the ship is no longer tethered to the pier and is now underway
1MC = Very robust announce system

Kevin Weiner, USCG Ret
For my Navy friends - The Shallow Water Sailor; or if you prefer, The Puddle Pirate

PS: Do you know what the difference is between a fairy-tale and a sea-story? One starts "Once upon a time", and the other ends "No sh#!"
PPS: I retired in 1999 but I can probably still pass any DCPQS. How I miss the sea.