Simulated attacks at the Port of Hueneme help build teamwork among emergency groups. A massive cloud of lethal gas, dozens of agonizing deaths by asphyxiation, an unknown number of hidden nuclear devices, executions, a ship full of hostages, and an enemy mine bobbing in the harbor: If any of it had been real, it would have been an absolutely horrible couple of days at the Port of Hueneme. Fortunately, the series of catastrophes was part of an antiterrorism exercise, an elaborate two-day drama staged Tuesday and Wednesday with the help of the Navy, the Coast Guard, some 140 FBI agents, 81 officers from the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department — in all, representatives from 18 military and law-enforcement agencies. Funded largely by a $2-million congressional appropriation, the exhaustive training session known as Asymmetric Warfare Initiative-O3 took nine months to organize. It culminated this week in a scenario known to a handful of planners but not to the more than 300 men and women desperately trying to cope with simulated infiltration by terrorists, a barrage of biological agents and, most importantly, each other. Full Story
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