http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/1204/122104gsn1.htm
Nuclear security drill nearly backfired, guards say
From Global Security Newswire
Security guards at the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant in Tennessee responded to a mock training "attack" on Sept. 2 with live weaponry, not sure initially what they were facing and prepared to shoot, the New York Times reported Tuesday.
The attack squad of guards wearing body armor and carrying loaded submachine guns was dispatched before dawn to intercept a group of "intruders," according to the paper. The intruders, however, turned out to be a second group of guards conducting a fake attack with laser-tag equipment.
"For two minutes, it was mass confusion," said one of the guards on duty that night. "People asked several times, 'Is this a drill?' Nobody would clarify."
A second guard involved in the exercise said the security team had concluded, due to radio dispatch chatter, that "it was time to go fight."
A third person involved in the incident submitted an anonymous letter to the union safety officer calling the error "an almost fatal tragedy," the Times reported.
No one was in danger during the incident, according to William Brumley, the Energy Department official in charge of the site, and an official with the company that handles security at the facility, Wackenhut.
Company official Martin Anderson acknowledged that the communication that night could have been "crisper."
Once the problem had been identified, a dispatcher promptly called a "code October," indicating that the guards should halt the exercise immediately, according to Wackenhut and Energy Department officials.
Peter Stockton of the Project on Government Oversight was more critical.
"When you introduce live ammo in one of these things, it can be a disaster. If somebody had come around the side of the building, chances are they would have been killed," Stockton said.
OOPS! well, almost...
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