SEQUIM – Fir Street in Sequim is supposed to be quiet this week, with the high, middle and elementary schools on spring break.
But on Tuesday morning, two giant Chinook helicopters showed up, along with 18 members of the Weapons of Mass Destruction Civil Support Team.
They came to the Sequim High School ball field and parking lot from Camp Murray, a Washington National Guard post near Fort Lewis in Lakewood, and sought to learn how to respond to an “NBC” – nuclear, biological and/or chemical – terrorist attack.
“People don’t think small cities are terrorist targets,” said Washington National Guard Lt. Col. Ben Zerface, commander of Tuesday’s training exercise.
But terrorists could set up laboratories in towns such as Sequim, test their weapons – “and they could make a mistake, so people could start getting sick.”
In the event of an attack, the Hood Canal Bridge would probably be closed – or refugees from the Seattle area could clog roads – so helicopters would transport responders and equipment, Zerface said.
“We want to develop relationships with local agencies,” he added.
“We hadn’t done anything in this jurisdiction before.”
Around 8:30 a.m. Tuesday, the Chinooks arrived.
Waiting for them were state National Guard team members and four people with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
They’d spent the night at the Quality Inn, Zerface said.
Two other WMD response team members from South Dakota, Capt. Lori Starr and Sgt. Kelley Crane, joined the Washington National Guard for the training exercise.
“I had never seen an airlift package before, so that was really cool,” said Crane, who served in Iraq and Kuwait in 1991 and in Afghanistan in 2004.
