[Scan-DC] 19th century battle run from 21 century command post at Gettysburg

[Alan Henney]

The Evening Sun (Hanover, Pennsylvania)

July 6, 2013 Saturday

19th century battle run from 21 century command post at Gettysburg

BYLINE: By T.W. Burger For The Evening Sun

SECTION: NEWS

LENGTH: 554 words

Inside the trailer just outside Gettysburg, three men sat at tables, each monitoring several base radio units covering nine radio frequencies. Air conditioning units hummed quietly as background to quiet radio chatter between this command center and mobile staff, police, first aid crews, and others. 

Outside the quiet bustle in this 21st century command center, a 19th century battle raged, with cannons, muskets, and soldiers garbed in blue and gray wool moving in Napoleonic tactics.

Welcome to the Civil War re-enactment in 2013.

At the moment, the command center at the 150th Gettysburg Anniversary National Civil War Battle Re-enactment on the Redding Farm is under the direction of Jim Fox, a longtime veteran of police and fire communications in Adams County.

"I first got into communications as a junior fireman in 1956," he said. "Then I worked at the county's quick-call center."

The center was the precursor to the county's 9-1-1 center. Anybody who needed a police officer would call the center, the dispatcher would flip a switch, turning on pole-mounted lights on Lincoln Square. Whenever a police officer spotted the lights, he would phone the center and find out where he needed to be.

Setting up the command center and the event itself was a slow process, Fox said.

"We started in August of last year, getting permits from both Straban and Cumberland townships. The re-enactment field sprawls across the border between the two municipalities.

Fox said that the communications network at the re-enactment is more than a couple of guys working the radio.

"We have 145 radios operating on nine frequencies, communicating with nine divisions; command, EMS and Fire, military, traffic control, living history, security, and resources," Fox said. "We have our own medical facility, manned with 11 of our people."

The whole thing is backed up by local HAM radio clubs, in case the official communications grid is disrupted.

Fox said the primary use for the medical facility has been helping participants to deal with dehydration and heat exhaustion. Thierry Matheu, one of the radio operators, said the previous day's heat and humidity had re-enactors "dropping like flies."

Most of those treated at the tent returned to their units. A few had to be transported to The Gettysburg Hospital for further treatment and observation.

Security at the re-enactment has been provided by Pennsylvania State Police and officers from the Cumberland Twp. Police Department. In addition, the organizers, The Gettysburg Anniversary Committee, has its own force of 15 security personnel and a mounted security force consisting of volunteers from Maryland.

While Fox was being interviewed, a report came over a radio regarding a group of people "getting rowdy" at one of the locations on re-enactment site. Fox had dispatcher James A. Nett Jr., send some security people over to calm things down.

"We're here 24 hours a day, for as long as the event is going on," Fox said. "It's like a small city."

Given that thousands of re-enactors with muskets, pistols and cannons hammered away at one another in portrayals of Gettysburg's most famous battle, one of the re-enactment's strict security rules may seem a bit ironic.

Outside of police, there are no guns allowed on the site. Real, working, loaded guns, that is.

"That's just for security," said Fox.

GRAPHIC: The command center at the Gettysburg Anniversary Committee re-enactment is stocked with radio and scanners for fire and police in the region.
Jim Fox dispatches emergency personnel from the command center at the Gettysburg Anniversary Committee re-enactment in Gettysburg, Pa. Saturday July 6, 2013.