Bomb Threat at JBER - VP Pence arrives today

a reply to: Blaine91555

I worked on computer systems for [pipeline related company]. We did 24x7 support. A section of the pipe can be remotely shut down in minutes with the whole thing a bit longer. Every single remote shutdown valve is redundant like you said. It would not suffer the HI snafu nuke attack! For 800 miles it is pretty secure! I have a bit of faith in the good people that push the oil through it!

The name of the game in oil movement is legal mitigation... no matter the cause! When oil spills from service trucks (seriously, droplets!) are reported to the EPA, you can bet terrorism is covered. Hell, I learned crane hand signs from reading the safety manual at work! Even know what to do when a bomb threat is called in!!

originally posted by: TEOTWAWKIAIFF
a reply to: Blaine91555

When oil spills from service trucks (seriously, droplets!) are reported to the EPA

This is by far my favorite part of the whole resistance to pipelines movement, when they report absurd statistics like there are 100,000 pipeline "leaks" every year. Yeah, and 99% of them were a couple of drops that landed on concrete or in a drip pan and never touched the ground.

a reply to: TEOTWAWKIAIFF

Sounds like it's pretty secure then. I see they had a 200 gallon spill from a loading arm the other day and the response seemed a bit extreme. No oil sheen on the water but they sent in the skimmers anyway.

a reply to: Blaine91555

Alyeska has bi-yearly drills at various spots up and down the pipeline. They have all the equipment for smallish spills in Valdez. When you are not sure how much has spilt, I think the "error on the side of caution" response is better than the "I think we are going to need a bigger boat"! I think that most of their shutdowns are for pipe corrosion and safety gear upgrades up and down the pipeline.

Alyeska is all kinds of safety cautious. BP, Shell, Arco, Phillips, and the others (when they were still around), are all the same. Arco had land line, microwave, and satellite options to reach the North Slope to run their equipment. If worse came to worse, they could call up a guy and have them go out and flip a manual switch!

I didn't catch very much more info on the JBER scare. But I know that last year my army buddy was arrested by gate guards (air force??) who were never informed of a training exercise! Had a good laugh over that one! I was not too worried on this one! I will see if he has any more info he can share when I see him again.

originally posted by: TEOTWAWKIAIFF
a reply to: Blaine91555

But I know that last year my army buddy was arrested by gate guards (air force??) who were never informed of a training exercise!

Depends which gate he was coming through. I was stationed there right before I retired. If you come through the Air Force side a lot of times it's actually civilian contractors. Sometimes Air Force Security Forces. I only came through a gate on the Army side a handful of times, and I think I remember it being civilian contractors there, but I also might be thinking of Fort Bragg where I was stationed before that. My memory sucks and I might be mixing them up.

a reply to: TEOTWAWKIAIFF

I see the article was updated a bit.

The threat was called in "some time over the weekend," according to public affairs specialist Keisha Lafayette.

When asked why it took until Monday to search the building, Lafayette said, "For security purposes, we cannot discuss those procedures."

At this time, Lafayette said JBER officials have not identified who reported the false bomb threat. Additionally, she said people have been allowed back inside the building.

I'd imagine when / if they find the person, this is not going to be good for them.

a reply to: face23785

They were already on the property. They were driving to a sectioned off area on 4-wheelers for their drill and were stopped again then it all went down!

a reply to: Blaine91555

That could fall under national terrorism act. Threatening the Veep is not a slap on the wrist offence either. Wikipedia says it is the same as a threat to the President, candidate for President, or immediate family, and is a felony!

a reply to: TEOTWAWKIAIFF

My bad, when you said gate guards I just assumed he got arrested at the gate lol. It happens. I've heard of guys getting taken in for stuff like that, then your unit First Sergeant has to come get you. We had Airmen driving fuel trucks get stopped and arrested for accidentally driving into restricted areas of the flightline they didn't have clearance for. There are red lines all over the flightline and some are inactive, some are active. Guys can kinda forget about the inactive ones because you ignore them most of the time, until they go active and you get put on your face for driving into the restricted area. The information about which lines are active goes out to the units that use the flightline, but of course there can always be miscommunication or just a mistake.

a reply to: face23785

I had replied to your post... now it like it never went!

All I said was basically, civilian here, probably did not include the right information to begin with, sorry! They did have to travel across the base on 4-wheelers to get to the live fire range and they were going to a munition detonation area when the error happened. Non-army stopped the army guys and hilarity ensued including a cussing first Sergeant first yelling at the guards, then his guys, then the guards some more!

I swear I typed that all in... like over an hour ago! Weird?!?!