This isn’t precisely them, but someone said Homeland Security’s doing it in some camp in Arizona or New Mexico. This is probably a more-or-less accurate portrayal of them and how they’d appear if I actually had a photograph of them training, I figures.
Main reason for my thinking so is the abundance of enthusiasm and ammunition they’re blessed with.
Old Jules
It’s comforting to think they’re out there training to protect us from foreign terrorists.
Good morning readers. Thanks for coming by for a read this morning.
During almost a decade when most of my salary was paid by FEMA I used to have to go to FEMA Regional Headquarters every quarter for meetings with people doing the same job I was doing in New Mexico, but from Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, Texas, and hmm if there’s another state in this FEMA Region I can’t recall it at the moment. But you get the idea.
Fairly dreadful meetings and nowhere near as interesting as the weeks spent in the training center at Emmitsburg, MD, or the various other meetings in places where there were Civil War battlegrounds to drift off and walk around on studying how those poor bastards delt with their differences of opinion.
But that’s another story for another time.
The Regional meetings for Emergency Management people and Flood Plain Management people were held on the top floor of an amazing bunker complex at FEMA Region 6 Headquarters outside Denton, Texas. A venal, truly hidebound lot of bureaucrats we were, too. Although the worst of us was nowhere near as anal, ugly, downright arrogant as the FEMA people.
And that was before 9/11 and FEMA becoming a part of Homeland Security. I hate to think how it must be today.
But what I wanted to tell you about is that bunker complex. Damnedest thing I’ve ever beheld this side of Carlsbad Caverns if it was set up for the US Congress, the 82nd Airborne Division and MD Anderson Hospital were all planned to be housed inside it. For a long, long while.
Just the parts I was allowed to visit and mull over were several stories underground and probably several acres diameter. Above ground under all the festooning of antenna, cable and concrete was a pillbox so the people underground could go up and peek out to shoot the occasional mutant, malcontent, or just enjoy the sight of all the devastation.
The first level entryway was a hallway with sprinklers to wash off the radioactivity lingering on anyone going inside, along with slots to allow shooting anyone who didn’t use soap or wash long enough. And just beyond that was a huge freezer for dragging the carcasses into of people who either got shot or didn’t get clear of the radiation quickly enough to avoid the blind staggers.
Nearby was a huge, amazing, pristine, empty hospital complex with supplies, stacked along the walls, equipment, tables, clean shining stainless steel waiting for some doctors to show up to treat any patients that might show up.
Next floor down was the ‘Continuity of Government’ facility. A place designated for the Governors of all the Region 6 States, their staffs, their families to wait out whatever difficulties led to them being there. Hallways with State Flags for each of the member States hung in front of entranceways to avoid Louisiana confusing itself with New Mexico.
An entire floor was devoted to warehousing food, water, all manner of supplies the people living down there would be consuming. Another floor devoted to Security and Military personnel, along with their equipment and ammunition. That floor also contained the communications equipment so’s they could talk to anyone who still was alive outside and able to speak English. Or to whomever else was left out there with radio equipment still working.
And those were just the floors I was allowed to visit. The FEMA folk hinted there was a lot more, winked knowingly, but wouldn’t discuss what was there.
Soothing thought, I found it, knowing the government had arranged for a place for all those folks I considered more important than regular people to get in out of the rain and keep doing whatever needed doing for the people outside with their eyeballs running down their faces and their flesh sloughing off.
I surely hope they’re still maintaining those bunkers. I’d hate to think the politicos aren’t being looked after if something happens.
Old Jules
Posted in 1990's, 2012, America, Current Issues, Emergency Preparedness, Government, Human Behavior, Military, Politics, Survival, Texas
Tagged continuity of government, culture, emergency preparedness, environment, FEMA, FEMA bunkers, government, homeland security, Human Behavior, humor, Life, lifestyle, politics, psychology, society, sociology, survival
One of the ways I keep up on world events and amuse myself when I’m alone in an eating establishment without a book involves eavesdropping. I gaze at the food, a picture on the wall, something outdoors through the plate glass, and I listen to conversations at the nearby tables.
It’s curiosity, as much as anything else. And mostly I lose interest quickly because so often the talk is about some sports event, concert, or a television show. But sometimes it’s pay dirt.
A while before I left New Mexico I was doing the listening routine to the goings-on among several BDU and otherwise uniform clad people of both sexes, all toting large-bore automatic pistols in holsters hanging from their waists.
Turned out these folks were part of a conference between Federal and State Homeland Security forces (whatever that might be). I’d never seen that particular uniform combination, nor the patches and medallions, so I listened as closely as I dared without drawing attention to myself.
The eating establishment is on San Felipe Tribal Lands. Maybe that’s why the conversation drifted in that direction.
Fed: “Do you have any issues dealing with any of the tribes?”
NM State: “You wouldn’t believe it. Everything’s an issue.”
And so on in detail involving a lot of ‘issues’ a person born in 1943 (me), would never have believed could ever be discussed by government employees as though they should be part of any reality here. The attitude was clearly that the tribes were being irresponsible in reluctance and obstruction of the aims of Homeland Security.
The topic broadened in a while.
NM State: “I think a lot of people just don’t understand what we’re doing. They don’t realize how dangerous things are for them.”
Fed: “That’s a problem all over the country. I was in Phoenix a few weeks ago . . ., etc”
That NM Homeland Security lady all dressed up with a gun and nowhere to go was wrong.
I believe most people understand perfectly well what they’re doing and have an inkling of why they’re doing it. It isn’t a lack of understanding that makes me smile and cheer inside, knowing the tribes, at least, are dragging their feet.
I think people are beginning to ‘realize how dangerous things are for them’, to the extent that dangers actually exist in this hostile reality we’ve chosen for ourselves. But at least a part of the ‘danger’ people feel involves a new kind of policeman who thinks the US Constitution is obstructionist.
They just don’t know what needs to be done about it.
Tom Russell–Claude Dallas
http://youtu.be/MzYTh2xV5NU
74 years old, a resident of Leavenworth, KS, in an apartment located on the VA campus. Partnered with a black shorthaired cat named Mister Midnight. (1943-2020)
Since April, 2020, this blog is maintained by Jeanne Kasten (See "About" page for further information).
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