Michael J. Helgerson » Military http://michaelhelgerson.com The musings of a planner. Thoughtful considerations of the past, present, and future. Sat, 26 Sep 2009 06:50:16 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8 en hourly 1 [5] Vigilant Guard. http://michaelhelgerson.com/2009/06/5-vigilant-guard/ http://michaelhelgerson.com/2009/06/5-vigilant-guard/#comments Mon, 29 Jun 2009 21:33:43 +0000 Michael http://michaelhelgerson.com/?p=127 While this post is quite late to the subject, I thought it was worth mentioning. I am sure someone else has already pointed this out.

On June 18th, Iowa kicked off the National Guard’s Vigilant Guard initiative – a measure designed to develop the emergency response capability of the National Guard and local officials. The scenario acted out in Des Moines involved local citizens who pretended to have injuries stemming from the derailment of a train carrying a highly combustible material.

At first I questioned the plausibility of such a scenario in downtown Des Moines. However, the following weekend a train carrying ethanol (an incredibly flammable material) derailed and killed one woman. Quite coincidental, eh?

Well, to say the least, my skepticism has disappeared and I am glad that Iowa’s emergency response officials have been trained to manage situations such as these. With the growing ethanol production industry in Iowa, I have few doubts there will be more opportunities in which these particular skills are called to use.

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