Guard Members Respond to Midwest Ice Storms

By Tech. Sgt. Mike R. Smith, USAF
Special to American Forces Press Service

Dec. 13, 2007 - More than 140 National Guard members in the Midwest responded to a band of deadly mid-December storms that stretched from eastern Texas to the Ohio Valley and into northern New York and New England. Missouri Army Guard Officer Candidate Neilson Rudd was one of more than 20 fatalities attributed to the storms, which brought freezing rain to more than 10 states and rain, sleet and snow to nearly half the nation.

Trees and power lines in some states were brought down by inch-thick ice accumulations, which closed roadways and left thousands in need of emergency assistance from the Guard and local and state agencies.

Missouri National Guard units were on standby for most of the week and throughout the weekend after their governor declared a state of emergency.

At least 22 Guard members responded. An Army Guard armory was used as a warming shelter, and soldiers provided security for residents there. Soldiers also provided transportation and cleared debris from roadways. Members of the 203rd Engineer Battalion provided generators and conducted door-to-door wellness checks for rural areas in Barton County.

Rudd saw an auto accident on Dec. 9 and stopped to check on the vehicles' occupants. He was not on military duty at the time.

When returning to his vehicle on the Katy Trail Bridge, just north of Jefferson City on Highway 63, another vehicle lost control and struck him down. Rudd was pronounced dead at the scene, according to Missouri State Highway Patrol reports.

"I am deeply saddened by the loss of Officer Candidate Rudd," said Maj. Gen. King Sidwell, Missouri adjutant general. "His actions exemplify the values of the United States Army and the Missouri National Guard."

Officials said Rudd was returning from his weekend drill at the 140th Regional Training Institute, Fort Leonard Wood, Mo., at the time of the accident. He enlisted in March 2006 as a military policeman with the 1140th MP Company in Fulton. He entered officer candidate school earlier this year.

Meanwhile, the governor of Oklahoma declared a state of emergency for all 77 counties due to the widespread freezing rain there. The state's joint operations center coordinated missions, and at least 77 Guard members responded to requests for assistance. They transported 100 cots and opened a Red Cross warming shelter at the armory in Broken Arrow. Soldiers also responded to at least five requests for emergency power in the state's northeastern region. Guard members provided fresh water to residents in Wikiupp and delivered more than 1,000 sandbags in Clatsop County.

The Kansas National Guard provided emergency power for water treatment facilities, sewer systems and shelters in at least two counties. Nearly 130,000 residents were without power, and the Guard was planning door-to-door wellness checks yesterday for affected residential areas. Guard units also delivered cots to Red Cross shelters and were planning observation flights to check on residents, which responders were unable to reach.

"We have seen a huge increase in requests for Guard support today," said Sharron Watson, a Kansas Guard spokeswoman. "Generator missions have been the biggest request, but we have also had our Guard members out clearing roadways in southeast Kansas."

The National Weather Service predicted lighter amounts of sleet, freezing rain and snow, but also reported the possibility of additional accumulations from another storm developing later in the week.

(Air Force Tech. Sgt. Mike R. Smith is assigned to the National Guard Bureau. Missouri National Guard Capt. Tammy Spicer contributed to this article.)

Three Missouri Law Enforcement Officials

Editor's Note: One of the authors is WWII Navy vet.

Police-Writers.com is a website that lists state and local police officers who have written books. The website added two Missouri police officers and one state trooper: Robert B. Heinen, Del Gibson and Jeffery Nance.

Robert B. Heinen was a police officer for the Kansas City Police Department (Missouri) from 1946 to 1974. He retired at the rank of Captain. At the beginning of World War II a then 17 year old Robert Heinen enlisted the United States Navy. He served four years in both the Atlantic and Pacific. Six months after the war he joined the Kansas City Police Department. He is published his autobiography The Battle Behind the Badge in 1997.

According to one reader, “The Battle Behind the Badge takes you on the streets of Kansas City with Captain Heinen as your partner. BEWARE! On your shift you'll not only encounter dangerous street thugs, but high-powered organized crime figures. When you return to the station house to file your reports, be prepared to battle corrupt police officials and egocentric city hall politicians. "The Battle Behind the Badge" is an excellent hardball account of Kansas City during a time when it was difficult to tell who the bad guy was. Captain Heinen is an honest cop who pays for his integrity by being yo-yoed up and down the ranks. He is Kansas City's "Serpico." This is a very good read that took a lot of guts to write.”

Del Gibson had a circus act at age fifteen, hitchhiked through forty of the lower 48 states at sixteen, and was a homicide detective with the Kansas City Police Department (Missouri). A graduate of Central Missouri State University with an M.S. degree in Criminology, he trained National Police in the Republic of Marshall Islands and was a counter-intelligence investigator for the U.S. Department of Defense in the South Pacific. He has also taught criminology in several colleges and universities.

Del Gibson is the author of the thriller False Sanctuary. According to the book description, “Newly divorced, Kelly Garrison moves to Newton, Colorado, to start a new life. A former policeman, Kelly is hired by the Newton police department. Kelly is befriended by long- time resident, Joel Carson, who is a retired miner and also mayor of Newton. Then Kelly falls in love with Joel’s granddaughter just before stumbling upon a huge drug money laundering operation conducted through the bank where Joel is the major stockholder. The drug cartel attempts to kill Kelly for investigating the laundering operation. Is Joel, Kelly’s new friend, part of the operation? Who in Newton can Kelly trust?”

Jeffery Nance is a certified fraud examiner, former undercover narcotics agent trooper with the Missouri State Highway Patrol. He is the author of Conquering Deception. According to the book description, “Conquering Deception delivers the tools to recognize the hidden meanings of what others say using principles originated by America's savviest police investigators. Conquering Deception adapts these principles for use in any setting--business or personal--to be used in an informal and non-confrontational style. A handbook for the savvy conversationalist that is practical, effective, and one-of-a-kind.”

One reader of Conquering Deception said, “This book is quite effective (maybe too effective) at translating police interrogation tactics in a way that you can use in everyday conversations, and like the literature says, you don't have to be overly inquisitive or accusatory to make them work. I say 'maybe too effective' because I'm not sure that the average person needs to be privy to this information. Like the author, I'm a former police officer. I liked the book, and as above, it's highly effective--but this is material that the average officer doesn't even know, much less the average citizen. It is powerful stuff--if these principles of conversation have been used to get suspects to confess to murdering another person, it's easy to see that they would be powerful in everyday conversation.”

Police-Writers.com now hosts 631 police officers (representing 277 police departments) and their 1344 books in six categories, there are also listings of United States federal law enforcement employees turned authors, international police officers who have written books and civilian police personnel who have written books.