Liberty Village was Bombed

By Mark Duensing, KD5DLL

"It was a bomb blast at the Liberty Village and there will be casualties here in about 5 min." These were the words heard Saturday morning at Camp Gruber, located just outside of Braggs, Oklahoma. Amateur radio operators were asked to take part in an all day exercise in conjunction with the Army, Navy, Marines, and OK1 D-MAT. Amateur Radio Operators From Tulsa ARC set up ATV located at what was called Tent City. A transmitter at the D-Mat Hospital and Triage area in Tent City the other at the disaster site located at what was called Liberty Village The command post at Tent City was the location for the receiver. The XO and CO and all officers involved were all huddle around the TV sets as the disaster unfolded before their eyes. Jim Green N5PMP and Tom Roininon KB5HMZ were located at Liberty Village using a PC Electronic 1-watt transceivers and a 24-element beam supported by Jim's homemade emergency tower trailer. Eddie Chandler KD5JGA and Mark Duensing KD5DLL were located at Tent City. The Hospital and triage area transmitter was also a PC electronics 10- watt Transceiver and a mag mount ¼ wave antenna. The receivers were PC Electronics Down converter and the antenna was a DB Product loop antenna up about 25 feet on the clubs portable emergency repeater and tower trailer. Both site were transmitting 434.00 simplex and would take turns when interests switched from location to the other. There was none stop action when one location was transmitting the other location recorded activities to play back later.

Terrorist by setting off a bomb attacked at the Liberty Village. The victims played by the Civil Air Patrol Cadets were real good actor and the make artist were real pro's. When things started to happen Tom KB5HMZ was heard to say over the air "this is way too life like. These kid deserve an Emmy Award." I could only imagine what he was seeing. Kind of like the late night show combat movie or something. It wasn't until they made it to the hospital that I got a real dose of what Tom was getting. The victims were anything but quiet. Mangled body part missing limbs object protruding from heads, chests, arms and the sounds they made. One screaming I am going to die, another screaming help me help me, and just plain old moaning. It was enough for this volunteers hair to stand on the back of his neck. I could just imagine what the D-Mat volunteers were thinking. If you hadn't seen anything like this in person you can't get the full feel for what to expect. As Jim N5PMP was making tour through the village with the video camera He heard "HAULT STATE YOUR BUSINESS". It was at that time Jim found out that if you were not wearing an orange vest as an observer you were considered to be the enemy. After the correct exchange of word with the Marine, who had his M 16 trained on Jim, the Marine Said " Proceed sir with caution and keep your hands where I can see them". Jim replied with a sharp "yes sir" and continued on his way.

Later in the day at Liberty Village there were 3 snipers and everyone had to take cover while the Marines took care of business. Once things quieted down something else would happen. There had been another terrorist attack this time using chemical warfare. Yes the amateur radio crew didn't go threw the exercise with out having there own causalities. It was reported over the air that N5PMP/sk had been over come by Serine Gas. But while the imaginary SK was detained he taped some excellent footage.

As the roles were played out at Liberty Village more victims pored in at the hospital. Now they were covered with burns and chemical inhalation and nerve gas wounds. There were lots of cases of DOA and people overcome by there injury's that were taken to the temporary Morgue setup just next to the hospital. It reported that a radio transmission was decoded to say that Tent city was going to be attacked. Tension greatly thickened as the Marines, Special Forces took their positions in response to the report. The attack came 3 hour later with 7 terrorist killed. About 5:00 pm that evening sneaking thought the front gate terrorists set off 2 chemical weapons, which put the Hospital out or commission for a while.

As the evening slowed down there were a lot of people interested in copies of the video and that they would like a copy. We were also told that if they do the exercise next year that they defiantly want us back. The XO CO and Officer in general didn't know that there were people like us out there that were able to do these kinds of things and for it to work well. We told them that we like to do thing like this for it also give us a chance to try new things and to help up work out our bugs also. Yes the 1.2 gHz and the Rabbit video did not work and we will be looking into these things. Thing to do different? Yes next time we would need more operators to video in more locations and bring those darn orange vest. All ham operators that were there had fun. In conclusion I think back to the exercise and think of how much fun it was but if this was for real would I be able to operate with the same success and composure? Will my preparedness be adequate? Had I thought of everything? I hope that I will never find out.

Mark Duensing KD5DLL .