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www.southgatearc.org
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SATERN helps Salvation Army in emergency Disaster preparation starts before a disaster happens. As firefighters work to control a wildfire near Yucca Valley, members
of the Salvation Army work close by to feed them. "It helps the Salvation Army workers stay in touch with each other," said Major Russell Fritz, Commanding Officer of the San Bernardino chapter. "We want our response to be as seamless as that of civil government." SATERN is a group of specially trained amateur radio operators, who work with Salvation Army volunteers in a disaster. Through amateur radio, the volunteers out in the field can stay in touch with those at a base a safe distance away. In the case of the Yucca Valley fire, the base is in Cathedral City. The field workers have a mobile kitchen to serve firefighters near the fire lines, and as they run out of supplies, can contact their base by radio for assistance. "If they run out of sandwiches at the mobile kitchen, the members in Cathedral City can do one of two things," Fritz said. "They can make sandwiches, put them in a van and take them to the mobile kitchen, or have the canteen return for supplies. The radio operators keep the line open to make the best decisions." The Inland Empire Salvation Army chapters provided four or five mobile kitchens operating simultaneously during the fires in 2003, Major Fritz said. These were all coordinated through a base in San Bernardino, and once again SATERN helped the volunteers stay in touch. Although there are hundreds of amateur radio enthusiasts in the Inland Empire, many of whom are members of the Salvation Army, only a few are trained and certified to help with SATERN. To increase those numbers, the Inland Empire Salvation Army chapters hold training workshops several times each year, and an annual field day where they practice by simulating a disaster. The most recent field day was held June 24-25 at Ontario Park, near the Ontario Salvation Army Corps office. Although the volunteers encountered some difficulties in this trial run, including difficulty setting up equipment, Major Fritz sees the experience as a good one. "It is this very condition that makes the field day experience so valuable for emergency operations," he said. "If we are called upon to respond to an emergency, you can be pretty well assured that, right at first, there will be no grand antenna structure and possibly no electricity. You need to bring with you all that you might need for a 24-hour stay." The quarterly training classes will also help Salvation Army workers deal better with an emergency, Major Fritz said. They are using a training course from the Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA). This training addresses the Incident Command System, in which one agency takes the lead in responding to an emergency, and other agencies, both public and private, coordinate their efforts with the lead agency. This method is almost always used when responding to large disasters. Participants in the training are issued certificates upon completion that most government agencies would accept as sufficient proof one is qualified to respond in an emergency. The most basic of the training courses offered by the Salvation Army was held June 3. A second course in the Incident Command System and a course on the operation of the Salvation Army field kitchens are in the planning stages, but dates have not been set. For more information about SATERN or the disaster response training the Salvation Army provides, contact Major Fritz at (909) 888-1337
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