Utah Base Lockdown

[Dusty]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/41288977/ns/us_news-life/

Now, they tell us.

SALT LAKE CITY — A Utah military base that carries out tests to protect troops against biological attacks was locked down over a "serious concern," but was beginning to reopen early Thursday, officials said.

Early Thursday, base spokeswoman Paula Thomas said the base, located about 85 miles southwest of Salt Lake City, had reopened to incoming personnel, and preparations were under way to allow people inside to leave.

She said there were no injuries resulting from the cause of the lockdown, which began Wednesday afternoon. She said more details would be released later in the day.


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Col. William E. King, base commander at Dugway Proving Grounds announced Wednesday evening that gates were locked to both incoming and outgoing personnel to resolve the problem, but that no one was in danger.

King and other base officials declined to provide any details on the cause of the lockdown.

"As you know measures like these (lockdown of our gates) are not taken lightly," King said Wednesday, according to NBC station KSL-TV. "No one is in immediate danger but these steps are required."
.Thomas called as accurate media reports that about 1,200 to 1,400 people — a mix of military personnel and contractors and civilian workers — were inside the base when the lockdown occurred.

The Salt Lake Tribune reported that a lockdown began at 5:24 p.m. MST Wednesday, with no one allowed in or out of the base.

According to its website, the nearly 800,000-acre base conducts chemical and biological defense training, and "is the Defense Department's leader in testing battlefield smokes and obscurants." Personnel there also test military equipment's viability in environments where they're facing chemical or biological threat.

The base also is used by the U.S. Army Reserves and the U.S. National Guard for maneuver training.

Someone must have lost their badge, temporarily.

[Dusty]

Originally Posted by wet dog

Someone must have lost their badge, temporarily.

I hope you're right, Bro-but would they lock the entire base down for that?

[CSB]

I've been at a Marine Corps Air Station that was locked down ... as in gates closed and nobody in and nobody out. I was stopped in the line of about 10-20 cars about to leave when the gates closed. We turned off the engines and waited, wandering around asking each other (and the gate guards) "WTF, over?" and just being told to stay where we were.

Just over an hour later, with no explanation, the gates reopened and we started engines and left.

Only on repeated inquiry did I learn what had happened: An intrusion alarm had gone off at an arms room, and it was SOP to lock down the base under such circumstances until the unit went to the arms room, opened it up, took inventory, and confirmed nothing was missing and it was a false alarm.

So I suspect something similar happened in Utah.

[mark46th]

Maybe dead livestock found in the area?

[mojaveman]

That was my first guess.

Something sensitive was unaccounted for or actually missing.

[Sohei]

After seeing it on the news and reading the various articles, my first thoughts were either a missing weapon or a missing "test tube" of something (NBCR). It will certainly be interesting to see the cause.

[craigepo]

Back when desert phase of Ranger school was there, I think that every other class that went through got treated to dudes in MOPP-4 showing up, and keeping the class from patrolling through some part of the base, or doing a live-fire on Wig Mountain.

Originally Posted by Dusty

I hope you're right, Bro-but would they lock the entire base down for that?

Yep, (BTDT).

[TheUnknownDC]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-12295554

Looks like something did go missing but it's found now...

[Pete]

Nerve agent mix-up prompts Utah base lockdown

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20110128/..._utah_lockdown

"SALT LAKE CITY (Reuters) – A mix-up over a tiny vial of a deadly nerve agent led to the overnight lock-down of the Army's Dugway Proving Ground, a sprawling, remote base in Utah where the U.S. military conducts weapons tests, officials said on Thursday.

A routine lab inventory on Wednesday indicated a small quantity of VX nerve agent was missing, prompting the base commander to shut down the installation as a precaution while a search was conducted, according to a statement by the base..............................."