[Ares-races] The scope of our mission

[Howard Coleman]

There has to be others that can state this concept better than I, but here
goes.

All of our training to date has prepared us for the earthquakes, the floods,
the hurricanes and we do a pretty damn good job of it.  But now, the scope
of our mission to be of help during times of emergency has grown and grown
far faster than our training is.  If seven terroristst can take over four
airplanes and fly them into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, what is
going to stop them from repeating the act on a larger scale?

As amateur radio operators, our job has been to assist with communications
at local shelters, ride along with other disaster workers to provide
communications, etc.  Rarely have we been involved in anything larger than
our own community, therefore our training concentrated only on providing
communications on that limited scale.  The hams that responded on September
11, 1991 did so without an organizational structure designed to operate on
such a massive scale.  They built the infrastructer as they went and are all
to be commended.  As an instructor for the ARRL Emergency Communications
Course, I have had a number of students that were involved and now want to
learn more about what they can do when such a large scale disaster happens
again.

The next statement is not meant to insult anyone but the taking down of the
World Trade Center and damaging the Pentagon is small potatoes compared to
the potential damage of chemical or nuclear dirty bombs placed in multiple
locations would have a far greater impact.  There are countless ways that
our country is at danger.  How, as communicators, do we respond - how do we
help?  How can the government agencies know that they can count on hams to
be of any help on larger disasters?

Currently, we are thought of as "local" communications even when "local"
refers to an entire state.  In the larger states, the structure is far
different and requires methods that have not been used before.  If using a
tool such as WinLink, will help us to expand our capability, then training
in it must happen.  What I am refering to is, let's get the infrastructure
of WinLink (or whatever method is universally decided upon) in place and
conduct training on a far larger scope than we have in the past.  There is
no reason that training can not be done between states or regions. We must
cast off the limitations that we have placed upon ourselves.  The days of
saying it won't happen here ended on September 11, 1991.