"Whenever

there's a crisis like this, it's part of First Army's mission to send

a colonel and staff to coordinate federal assistance ... and make sure

they have the staffing and equipment they need," explained Col. Rob

Saxon of Peachtree City, public information officer for First Army.

Saxon and a

handful of other officials from Fort Gillem traveled to New York to make

sure things were going according to plan.

The Forest

Park headquarters has responsibility for coordinating federal assistance

for disasters in the eastern half of the United States, Saxon said, under

a program known as the Federal Response Plan.

A defense coordinating

element is a rapidly deployable unit, headed by a defense coordinating

officer, that provides the Federal Emergency Management Agency unique

Department of Defense assistance to help victims get their lives back

to normal as soon as possible.

First Army

deployed two such units with completely difference missions.

The DCE in

New York City was was ordered "to establish the DCE, initially in

Edison, N.J., and be prepared to move the operation to New York City,"

said Col. Kevin Connors, the defense coordinating officer and commander

of the 2 nd Brigade, 78 th Infantry Division, at Ft.

Drum, N.Y. and one of 13 such units within First U.S. Army that provide

training support to Reserve Component units.

Connors said

he and other brigade leaders were at Ft. Dix, N.J., preparing 29 th

Infantry Division units for deployment when someone came into the room

and told him what had happened in New York City. In only a few hours,

the 25-person DCE was fully operational in the 78 th Division

headquarters building in Edison, N.J., which was the staging area for

the DCE, FEMA and Corps of Engineers, prior to their deployment to New

York City.

Following the

very early days of the disaster, the DCE was relocated to Pier 90 in Manhattan

as an integral part of FEMA's Disaster Field Office.

Since its activation,

the DCE has coordinated Department of Defense support personnel and equipment

to help with the search, rescue and recovery efforts at the World Trade

Center disaster site.

"We have

provided support transportation for urban search and rescue teams from

around the country to our base support installation (McGuire Air Force

Base, N.J.) and into New York City," said Connors. "We also

brought in master breachers to help cut the massive steel girders and

pilots to fly helicopters around the disaster site."

A few days

after the disaster, the USNS Comfort (a Navy hospital ship) docked next

to the disaster field office at Pier 90, bringing the total number of

personnel who were under Connors' operational control to more than 450.

A second DCE

was deployed near the Pentagon, where things were completely different,

according to the defense coordinating officer for the Pentagon disaster

site, Col. Del Turner.

Within hours

of activation, Turner and 10 soldiers under his command had established

a DCE in Arlington, Va., to provide support to the search, rescue and

recovery operations at the Pentagon.

Some of the

defense personnel deployed to New York helped train the civilians in unique

skills and equipment that the military had available, said Connors.

"We brought

in master breachers, experts at cutting steel, who began training the

firemen, policemen and FEMA personnel on the use of a special cutting

torch," said Connors. "A normal cutting torch works at about

1,500 degrees. But the torch used by the master breacher works at about

8,000 degrees. It makes the process go much easier and faster. But, it

also takes special training to use it properly."

The military

also brought robots, infrared cameras and special Doppler radar units

to the site.

"The infrared

cameras were used to pinpoint places where possible survivors could be

located," said Connors. "Almost every search and rescue team

used them."

"We also

used a special laser Doppler radar that monitored movement of the surrounding

buildings as debris was being removed in order to alert workers of a possible

collapse," he added.

"The robotics

specialists helped by sending the DoD-controlled robots into holes that

the city punched into the streets," said Connors. "The robots

were looking at the slurry wall for cracks."

The slurry

wall was built by the New York Department of Design and Construction under

the site of the World Trade Center to prevent the river water from entering

the towers once they were built.

According to

Connors, in addition to the enormous scope of the search, rescue and recovery

missions, the fact that they were dealing with a crime scene set this

disaster apart from any other a First U.S. Army DCE had previously been

called upon to support.

"It was

a crime scene with no warning," he said. "For a hurricane, you

have sufficient time to prepare. This wasn't just a disaster where a building

collapsed. It was a 'war zone' where we were attacked. We had to get focused

in a much different manner."

All the missions

were hard ones, but helping the citizens of New York City to get back

to normal was the hardest, especially for the DoD personnel actually on

site. They had to help remove the remains. No one really liked going down

there, but the DoD personnel were there every day doing their jobs. In

this respect, the two sites were very similar.

Connors said

the units performed well. "We are proud that in our own way, we helped

people and our country get