Timely Alert II Exercise- Pentagon

[NecessaryOnslaught]

"There was a plan in place, but we went from 0 to 60 overnight, so to speak," said Lt. Col. Stephen N. Wood, Garrison commander, here. "By sheer coincidence we were scheduled to conduct "Timely Alert II," a force protection exercise on Sept. 11 and because of that, some of the concrete barriers were already in place."

Wood said people on post told him when they first saw live footage of the events unfolding at the World Trade Center, they thought it was some elaborate training video to accompany the exercise.

Firefighters here said others told them the same thing. "You really outdid yourself this time," a worker said to Captain "Jack" Rindt, training officer for the Fort Monmouth Fire Department. Rindt could only express his sorrow while he acknowledged that indeed, what people were seeing was not a movie, even if it looked like one.

http://www.amc.army.mil/amc/pa/oct01.html

[frylock]

1. sheer coincidence number 318..

it's getting hard to keep track of the "sheer coincidences" that occurred that day.

[driver8]

8. Not coincidences...Divine Intervention!!! n/t

[BlueOhio]

2. They were ready

because they knew it was coming. tin foil hat on.

[Minstrel Boy]

3. Amazing. And yet, shouldn't we expect this by now?

A google of "Timely Alert II" gets only this one hit. I had not heard of this drill before.

This makes, I think, six very "timely" drills on 9/11 that I know of.

Thanks for posting this.

[NecessaryOnslaught]

6. A tangled web it is

When I originally read the article I assumed that because they were watching events in NY on tv, that they were Ft. Monmouth personnel at pentagon. However, the article then goes on to describe WTC survivor decontamination efforts by Ft. Monmouth personnel.

While googlin around to find some more info I came across this- An old post of yours.

"Burlingame's 9-11 Pentagon plane not only hit the Pentagon that morning, it struck a Command and Control center for that morning's counterterrorism "game" exercise, killing most, if not all, of the "players". We know this because Army personnel from Ft. Monmouth, New Jersey were on special duty assignment at the Pentagon that morning for an emergency response exercise and were killed when Burlingame's plane hit. Ft. Monmouth, New Jersey also happens to be the headquarters for White House/Presidential communications, including therefore probably also for Air Force One (this is discoverable) -- and recall the warning "Air Force One is next" and the 'secret code' which was called into the White House that morning which WH press secretary Ari Fleischer revealed as a means of explaining why Pres. Bush left Florida for a military base and did not return to the White House. This "warning" was probably called into the White House, if true, by either the Ft. Monmouth White House communications headquarters and/or the Ft. Monmouth counterterrorism exercise "game" players temporarily at the Pentagon that morning."

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...

So was Timely alert 2 at the pentagon or at Ft. Monomouth?

[Minstrel Boy]

7. My read is that they are two distinct drills.

Some Fort Monmouth personnel were apparently at the Pentagon, but that doesn't sound like "Timely Alert II."

Thanks again for posting this. I'd forgotten all about the Fort Monmouth connection to the Pentagon counterterrorism exercise.

Wow. what a mindbender.

[NecessaryOnslaught]

9. I agree, Timely Alert II was not at the pentagon

But based out of Fort Monmouth.

Timely Alert may have included decontamination of survivors.

from the original article..
"As events unfolded Sept. 11, Fort Monmouth services were called out to help in various capacities. The fire department deployed to Atlantic Highlands to assist passengers coming from Manhattan by ferry. Firefighters assisted close to 5,000 people by decontaminating skin, eyes, clothing and personal effects."

from the book Never Forget: An oral history of Sept 11th pg 13.

Spencer Kobren

"...We get to the ferry people are crowding, trying to jump on...Once we get to Staten Island...we were taken to Staten Island Hospital, my girlfriend and myself. These guys in white shoes and bioterrorism suits came out to meet us. They waved and said, "where are you guys coming from?"
We said, "Manhattan, we were int the World trade center incident"
They waved us to another area and made us take off all our clothing. They showered us down in public, no clothes. They didn't wan't our clothes in the hospital. We were naked, both of us. There were a couple of other naked people. They tried to cordon us off. They were so terrified it was chemical warfare. They burnt our clothes. Our clothes were gone. Our shoes, her boots, whatever we were wearing. Our ID and credit cards were decontaminated for us. I never saw anybody talk about this on the news."

[NecessaryOnslaught]

10. FDonscene at the Atlantic Highlands

"Used Immediately Following the World Trade Center Attack

Over 700 victims passed through the Atlantic Highlands Ferry Port in New Jersey following the September 11, 2001 WTC attack. Two fire departments, three local police departments, as well as representatives from county, state, and federal agencies were on hand to assess and assist the victims as they embarked. Emergency units on the scene included 40 ambulances, an FD communications unit, a decontamination unit, and 10 pieces of fire apparatus. A communications unit member on scene at the Port, who had seen a ninety minute demonstration of the software a few days earlier, brought a trial copy of FDonScene on line and used it to track people, resources, and events. A second person watched how the software was being used, and took over operation of it a few hours later. Overall, the software was operated successfully for 14 hours."
http://www.fieldsoft.com/success.html

Timely Alert III was a chemical warfare simulation involving FEMA, which means that FEMA was likely involved with not only Tripod II in manhattan, but with Timely Alert II in the atlantic highlands as well (and other locations?).

" Exercise Timely Alert III was a Counter Terrorism Force Protection exercise that simulated the release of toxic chemicals.
The exercise was ambitious. It involved a simulated "weapons of mass destruction act" to evaluate the fort's procedures, including its barrier plan, random anti-terrorism measures, crisis manage-ment, and building evacuation plans.

The elaborate exercise was really a "play within a play." Portions of the daytime Field Training Exercise (FTX) were videotaped for an evening tabletop Command Post Exercise (CPX) that involved the New Jersey and Monmouth County Offices of Emer-gency Management (OEM), the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), eight local OEM's, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)."
http://tinyurl.com/5tjp8
thks to dulcedecorum

[grasswire]

4. oh my

Maybe that explains the sightings of firefighters in full gear early that morning? Wasn't there something like that seen?

[NecessaryOnslaught]

5. Yes

they had to make their way through the massive amount of debris from the plane to fight the blazing inferno.