Training the
Protectors of
Homeland Security
By Rusty Russell,
Ed.D.
As news broke of the first airplane crash at the World Trade Center on September 11, I was at my computer writing task descriptions for West Virginia University's participation in the National Training Center for Homeland Security. My first thought that morning was that this could be a deliberate act, and it was immediately followed by thoughts of the possible number of casualties that could result from it.
My
thoughts ran this way because I have been working for over two
years to develop a program that will help prepare medical, fire,
law enforcement, military, and service workers for responding
to large-scale disasters. Terrorist acts, it has now so painfully
been made clear, are among these kinds of events.
Shortly after the second plane struck, I gathered with a few colleagues and watched perhaps 20 minutes of the live television broadcast from New York. Very quickly, I realized that the best thing I could do to help was to go back to work.
The National Training Center for Homeland Security (NTC-HLS) is a joint program of the WVU Research Corporation and the West Virginia National Guard. Our goal is to link first and emergency responders to information and training resources that will help them respond to disasters and acts that threaten their own health and safety—and the health and safety of people living at the scene of a disaster or terrorist act.
The partnership was formed through the guidance of Senator Robert C. Byrd, who has been at the forefront of Congressional leadership in recognizing the need for improvements in national preparedness for responding to bioterrorism and other terrorist acts. John Weete, WVU associate provost for research, and Major General Allen Tackett, adjutant general for the West Virginia National Guard, provide the executive leadership for the NTC-HLS.
When fully funded, the NTC-HLS will provide a combination of computer-networked information resources and special-purpose training facilities to help prepare those who respond to disaster events. WVU—working with our lead industry partner, Electronic Data Systems (EDS), and others—will provide a national network to deliver the information and training resources to emergency workers and others who need them.
These resources will include such things as training in how to recognize that a biological attack has occurred, and databases about specific harmful agents—including anthrax. The West Virginia National Guard is providing the physical training facilities at Camp Dawson and other locations. These will include buildings that can be used to train responders to work together in emergency operations, such as decontaminating people or work spaces.
WVU's participation in the NTC- HLS is coordinated though a program named the Virtual Medical Campus (VMC). WVU faculty and staff are working together in the VMC to create better systems for preparing responders to disaster events. The Lane Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering, under the leadership of its chair, George Trapp, is developing an integrated knowledge base that will contain the VMC's training and information resources.
Faculty members J.T. Hodges (WVU Fire Service Extension), Janet Williams (Center for Rural Emergency Medicine), Alan Ducatman (Department of Community Medicine), John Barnett (Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Cell Biology), Trevor Harris (Department of Geology and Geography), and Frances Van Scoy (Lane Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering) are all providing expertise to develop the VMC and the NTC-HLS. Highly skilled, key staff people are working with them.
There is a sense of purpose that surrounds the NTC-HLS initiative, and working with the faculty, staff, and students who share this sense of purpose provides a real feeling of satisfaction with the commitment that we share. Our respect for first and emergency responders, and their willingness to risk their own health and safety in the natural course of their work, deepens daily. It is not necessary to recall the scenes of September 11 for motivation to continue the work we are doing, but those scenes will always be a reminder of why preparedness programs and continuous training are necessary.
It is very gratifying to know that WVU—through the excellence of the people working together to develop the Virtual Medical Campus—is making a contribution to the national effort of protecting the health and safety of the people of the United States.