----
So apparently the best way to assess the readiness of West Point to react to a terrorist situation, specifically an "active shooter," (similar to what happened at Fort Hood recently) is to tell us when/where the mock attack is going to happen. I know I've only had limited logic education and tactical training, but something about this just doesn't make sense. I can't quite put my finger on it...
In classic cadet fashion, our company did come up with a plan to gain accountability of the company...the night before. Highlights of the plan include the company commander saying that "there’s also a good chance that I will be drugged up from the dentist" and a direction for the company First Sergeant to "wrassle with the shooter and subdue him." The actual plan calls for a formation to get accountability, so that means gathering a bunch of people in one, small, confined area...which is exactly what you want to do in the even to of a terrorist event. Wait a minute...turns out this plan didn't come to pass and instead we just didn't get accountability of our people. Well done.
So I was taking a nap when I heard a loud boom outside and then someone yelling in our building "active shooter!" So we pretended to have a formation, decided that a better accountability plan was for everyone to send one person an email, then I went back to sleep. The results of the whole thing? I don't know, they haven't told us. If I had to venture a guess, I would say it was a resounding "soup sandwich."
At the same time this was going down, a time-honored West Point tradition was going down: the SOSH run. It is a huge term paper for our International Relations course and people typically 1) wait until the last possible minute to do it and 2) dress up in goofy costumes to turn them in. My friend Alex had two of us dress up to be his PSD (personal security detachment) for the SOSH run (you can see one of the MP vehicles from the ATFP exercise in the background, also the crowd that gathers to witness the SOSH run):
There are people who dress up in banana suits, people who run in with flaming papers, people rollerskating in their underwear, basically all things absurd. Some cadets inevitably dress up as terrorists and soldiers, which of course involves carrying a weapon. The counter-terrorism exercise was still going on at this point, and it just happened to be in the same area as the SOSH run. So imagine Military Police on station during a terrorism exercise and cadets running around with rifles. Yeah, they sorta got detained and searched, probably in trouble of some sort. But it was friggin' hilarious for the rest of us!
No comments:
Post a Comment