[Milwaukee_Guy]

“...a civilian Civil Defense force could be rapidly assembled and deployed at any neighborhood for rescue, security and logistic support in addition and foremost to the national guard which takes longer to muster.”

Amateur Radio Operators currently fill much of this void as part of the Incident Command System, specifically as a part of the logistics function.

The big problem now is that FEMA and the Red Cross wish to monopolize all aspects of what has become the emerging new business of “disaster relief”.

The Red Cross and FEMA have interfered with many local relief efforts actually driving off local volunteers to solidify there own “relevance”.

North Dakota flooding - Red Cross/Fema refused access to local relief groups.

Katrina - Numerous cases of FEMA -destroying- antennas of local police and local relief groups.

9/11 New York - Amateur Radio APRS operations (GPS)terminated at the Command Centers due to concerns the bad guys would attack the Command Center. Never mind every other agency was radiating their position.

Red Cross policy of not training radio operators in damage assessment -before- an incident. This is an effort to control their prominence during a disaster.

I don’t speak for any amateur radio group. Only from my own experience and reading on the topic.

Any large bureaucracy anywhere will make every effort to protect and expand their own influence and relevancy.

Successful execution of their mission is quite low on the priority list.

Failure actually allows more funding and manpower to be allocated in the future.

Failure is the mandate of any large government bureaucracy.

[elpinta]

You nailed it!

I was involved for years with two counties in Kalifohnia as an emergency communications volunteer, and lived it first-hand.

So, now emergency communications is for me/family/friends and that is it!

[KTM rider]

so then, a community in a brush fire area should gather their community and protect themselves.

they could buy some hose and a few pumps, install some tanks, you dont need a big shiny fire truck, all you really need is a pickup truck and a few thousand feet of 1-1/2" hose to getterdun

and I know from experience,(six years with the forest service) that city engine do not like getting their hose dirty or going more than a few hundred feet from their engine

Our socialist government is lame and incompetent to say the least

in disasters we are on our own

like red dawn