civil defense

[Havok]

I am a volenteer fireman at a local company. Our trucks were driving around Halloween night to help the police keep down some petty crimes, as they are usually overrun anyways. Turns out we had to chase some youngsters ( They were really fast, but then again we were wearing about 40 extra punds of gear plus those boots)

well, after attempted to chase, they 'slit up' .... we radioed (spelling?) the local PD...

one cruiser forced them around a building ( with us in pursuit on foot) and another police cruiser was waiting on the other side.

Just a little quip to show you how nice radios and simple communication help, even on a civilian level...

-= B =-

[Taquito971]

We have a saying here, that you can't outrun a radio wave. Seems fitting. Glad you got them.

Brian

[Medic]

On my last wargame, myself and about 25 other medics were attached to a different hospital. The exercise, (at least, the aspect in which we participated) was to defend a medical node in-theater, against an opposition force (OPFOR). We had our medical brigade HQ in the compound, as well as the hospital itself and an ambulance company.

Well, it turns out that they didn't trust us loaned-out soldiers with much actual patient care (I spent only 2 shifts in the hospital, all others were spent on guard duty). On my first shift, I pulled the sergeant of the guard (SoG) aside and tried to "suggest" solutions to several deficiencies. The biggest was commo. If he had had a little more backbone, he could have rounded up field telephones, to keep the foxholes in touch with the SoG, if not radios. We ended up having a few soldiers on roving guard, to keep in contact in case the OPFOR takes out a position silently and started to penetrate.

My hospital will be going through that same exercise this year, without me it seems (I have orders to go through PLDC so I can make SGT). I'm lecturing my buddies about skills that are useful, and have been urging them to get some commo even if it means they go out and buy those motorola radios. Not secure communications, but it's better than trying to shout out over a firefight.

So yeah, commo is very, very important.


Take care all,
--Medic