National Guard Responds to East Coast Storm

By Air Force Tech. Sgt. John Orrell

National Guard Bureau

WASHINGTON, Dec. 27, 2010 – As of 8 a.m. today, 430 National Guard members had been activated in response to an East Coast winter storm that left as much as 2 feet of snow in some areas and prompted six governors to activate their National Guard.

Guard members from Delaware, Maryland, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Rhode Island and Virginia are providing equipment and manpower support to civilian authorities conducting emergency operations throughout their respective states.

“The key to rapid response for this event is having personnel in place and ready to respond,” Army Col. Gerald Catrett, joint operations officer for the Virginia Guard, said. “We are staging personnel, vehicles and equipment … to support missions such as transportation through heavy snow.”

Massachusetts Guard members are assisting local police to evacuate some homes affected by coastal flooding caused by the storms.

Maryland Guard members are calling on the lessons they learned during the “snowpocalypse” earlier in 2010.

“During the blizzards of earlier 2010, we helped deliver babies and rescue motorists on the highway,” Army Maj. Gen. James Adkins, the adjutant general of Maryland, said. “Who knows what the next call may be.”

Virginia Guard members are assisting Virginia State Police and local emergency response organizations in the Eastern Shore by conducting Humvee-mounted route patrols to assess road conditions and assist stranded motorists.

At about 4:45 a.m. today, they transported one adult and two children stranded on a side street and also were scheduled to transport emergency services personnel to work at a local hospital.

At about 6:30 a.m. they also rescued three people trapped in their car for more than four hours and transported them to a local shelter for further assistance.

Shooting Incident Likely Was Random, Pentagon Says

By Terri Moon Cronk

American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, Oct. 19, 2010 – An early morning shooting at the Pentagon’s exterior walls today likely was a random event, the director of the Pentagon Force Protection Agency said.

No one was injured, and the threat level at the Pentagon has not been increased as a result of what Steven E. Calvery called “an isolated event.”

At about 4:55 a.m., Calvery said, Pentagon officers said up to seven shots rang out from the area of the Pentagon’s south parking lot. Access was halted to the lot and all building entrances.

“Pentagon police, Virginia State Police and Arlington County Police conducted sweeps of the area, with no initial findings,” he said The reservation was declared safe and reopened at 5:40 a.m.”

A subsequent interior search revealed that bullets shattered exterior windows on the Pentagon’s third and fourth floors, but did not penetrate them, Calvery said. As a result, he added, Virginia State Police shut down portions of Interstate 395 and its high-occupancy vehicle lanes to look for any potential evidence.

The offices where the bullets struck are under renovation and were unoccupied, Calvery said.

The Pentagon Force Protection Agency is working jointly with officials from Arlington County and the Joint Terrorism Task Force, Calvery said, adding that a crime-scene search was under way to determine whether more bullets struck the building.

The FBI is looking into the possibility of a connection to a similar incident at the National Marine Corps Museum in Quantico, Va., over the weekend, Calvery said.

Law enforcement officers aren’t sure what type of weapon was used, and investigators had found no shell casings, Calvery said. No suspect description was available, and officials know of no specific threats, he added. Surveillance video is being reviewed for evidence, he said.

Meanwhile, Calvery told reporters, witness interviews continue, and the FBI is performing ballistics tests on the bullet fragments.

The Pentagon Force Protection Agency acted quickly, he noted.

“We took prompt action at immediately closing down the reservation [and] vehicular access, as well as access to the building pretty quickly once the shots were verified,” he said. During the 40-minute shutdown, officers swept the parking lot for clues. “We weren’t sure what was going on out there, and we wanted to make sure it was safe,” Calvery said.

Security recently was beefed up at the Pentagon’s Metro entrance, which Calvery said is a result of an after-action review from a March 4 shooting at the Pentagon.

“We made those changes and we think it provides a higher level of protection of people transiting in and out of the Pentagon,” he said.

Officials are evaluating whether more security measures are needed, Calvery said, but he expressed confidence in the protective posture that already was in place.

“I personally think our security is pretty robust at normal times,” he said.

An investigation into the incident continues.

Failure Equals Death, and other stuff

Editor's Note: One of the authors is a former servicemember.

August 20, 2007 (San Dimas, CA) Police-Writers.com is a website that lists over 700 state and local police officers who have written books. The website added three police officer authors: John Hefley; William Butler; and Ric Robinson.

Since 1999, John C. Hefley has been the Chief of Police of the Village of Big Bend Police Department (Wisconsin). John Hefley is also the author of Failure Equals Death. According to the book description of Failure Equals Death, “Young girls are being murdered. The members of the Special Investigations Unit are responsible for identifying the killer and stopping the deaths. They find nothing that links the victims. Worse than that, no physical evidence is found at the crime scenes and there is no sign of forced entry or burglary. This is the most challenging investigation this elite unit has ever encountered. There is only one certainty: they cannot fail because failure equals death.”

Ric Robinson, a 21 year veteran of law enforcement, was a state trooper with the West Virginia State Police. During his law enforcement career, he “investigated virtually every heinous crime.” During his law enforcement career with the West Virginia State Police was the director of Media Relations. In that assignment, Ric Robinson became an integral part of thousands of interviews, not only throughout the State, but for Dateline, 60 Minutes, Nightline, Larry King Live, COPS, and many more. After early retirement, Ric Robinson “took his unique talents to legendary radio giant WLW. As a daily host, his life experience, knowledge and aggressive style made Ric a popular entertainer, covering all of today's hottest topics.” Ric Robinson is the author of Cop: The Truth Behind the Badge.

According to the book description of Cop: The Truth Behind the Badge, it “knocks the politically correct crowd back on its heels with the truth about racial profiling, serial snipers, illegal immigrants, guns, drugs, and more. Nationally recognized police expert, talk radio host and teacher, Ric Robinson, delivers a powerful reality check with real cop stories about "scum-sucking slopeheads and their lying, thieving lawyers. Ric sets the record straight regarding homeland insecurity, misuse of power and justice denied.”

William Butler was a police officer for the Gilmer Police Department (Texas). In addition to his law enforcement career, William Butler is a former member of the United States Army. During his more than seven years as a soldier he attained the rank of sergeant (E5) and his duty stations included: Fort Sam Houston (Texas); White Sands Missile Range (New Mexico); and, two overseas tours. One of his military assignments overseas was as a patrol officer assigned to the Allied Checkpoints Bravo and Charlie in Berlin, Germany.

William Butler is the author of I Remember Tomorrow. According to the book description, “In an attempt to rebuild her life, Jeanette relocates to a quiet little town, after spending ten years in the military and suffering a failed marriage. But Jeanette is a precognitive; able to see the future. It scares her and causes her to question her sanity. Matters are complicated further when she meets the man of her dreams and what follows is a series of events that threaten to push her over the edge. Now she must deal with new challenges in her career, struggle with ever increasing psychic abilities, and come to grips with her feelings for a man she wants to love but fears she cannot.”

Police-Writers.com now hosts 715 police officers (representing 330 police departments) and their 1533 police 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.