NPS Morning Report - Sunday, September 16, 2001



                        NATIONAL PARK SERVICE
                           MORNING REPORT


To:         All National Park Service Areas and Offices

From:       Division of Ranger Activities, Washington Office

Day/Date:   Sunday, September 16, 2001 - Morning Edition

INCIDENTS

01-509 - Servicewide - Follow-up: Terrorist Attacks

Today's updates follow; more will appear in the afternoon:

o       Federal Hall (NY) - On Saturday, the Park Police detail 
        assigned to Federal Hall was pulled for an hour when a bomb dog 
        alerted to a tractor trailer parked outside the New York Stock 
        Exchange, which is across the street. An inspection of the 
        vehicle by the bomb squad revealed that the alert was 
        unfounded. The officers resumed their posts.

o       National Capital Region (DC/VA/MD) - The Park Police are 
        continuing to provide the law enforcement support begun on 
        September 11th. Officers remain on a heightened state of alert 
        and are continuing their increased patrols around all 
        monuments and memorials. The focus of these heightened 
        security measures remains the protection of visitors and the 
        country's national treasures. The patience of the public and 
        the media during the past several days has made the job of the 
        USPP that much easier. In addition to specific responses to 
        emergency situations, which includes providing many high-level 
        escorts and investigating numerous suspicious vehicles and 
        packages, officers have met the demands of day-to-day 
        operations. They continue to respond to calls for service, 
        investigate crimes, enforce traffic and environmental 
        violations, and assist citizens. USPP personnel remain on 
        extended shifts, with days off cancelled. Two Park Police SWAT 
        teams and USPP canine units have been deployed to Camp David 
        and are providing presidential security. The Park Police 
        helicopter continues to provide primary aerial law enforcement 
        support to the USPP; it is also providing perimeter security 
        checks in the District of Columbia, including bridges and 
        overpasses, and monitoring the secure airspace in DC. 
        Around-the-clock liaison is being maintained with all involved 
        agencies, which entails having personnel assigned to each 
        agency's command post. The Park Police chief's command post 
        (CCP) was established minutes after the attacks on the WTC in 
        New York and continues operation on a 24-hour basis.  The CCP 
        is supplying crucial "real time" information to personnel 
        working on the front lines and at numerous command posts. 
        Several PIO's have been assigned to the CCP and are providing 
        24-hour coverage, responding to all media requests. Live 
        interviews are being conducted with area media to assure the 
        public that all evacuations and closures have been 
        precautionary in nature. They are disseminating press releases 
        and providing information to local, national and international 
        media. The Park Police have also provided Arlington County PD 
        with a detail of officers to assist with security at the 
        Pentagon. The detail will operate around the clock through 
        September 20th. The Park Police honor guard participated in 
        the memorial service at the National Cathedral on Friday on 
        behalf of the Department, the Service and the Park Police.

Jay Lippert, DR at Fire Island NS, was among those who responded from 
his park, and has asked that the following note be shared with Morning 
Report readers: "I have been getting numerous messages from folks all 
over the NPS wishing us well and to be safe. It's important for the 
NPS family nationwide to know that Fire Island's two boat crews 
consisted of law enforcement/EMT rangers and of maintenance employees 
on board as boat operators/captains. Our mission was a basic one, one 
that NPS employees have been doing for years: To protect each other 
and to protect our nation's resources.  I have been speaking for both 
boat crews for the last week and feel confident that they would agree 
with my sentiments now.  Please let everyone throughout the NPS family 
know we appreciate their comments." 

Jay has also sent along the attached JPEG photo, which speaks for 
itself. 

[Lt. John Marigliano, GATE, 9/16; Sgt. R. MacLean, USPP, NCR, 9/16; 
Jay Lippert, DR, FIIS, 9/15]

01-512 - Gateway NRA (NY/NJ) - Rescue

On Saturday, August 18th, supervisory park ranger Tom O'Connell and 
chief lifeguard Ken Cevoli were patrolling park waters in lower New 
York Bay when they came upon a 19-foot pleasure boat in distress. 
Operator S.R., 35, and passenger M.G., 37, 
were frantically waving hand flares as their boat rapidly sank. Cevoli 
immediately radioed the lifeguard headquarters at Great Kills Beach 
Center, while O'Connell piloted the park's 19-foot rescue Zodiac to 
their assistance. Cevoli, O'Connell and lifeguard Brian Hopkins, who 
responded in the park's beach rescue rowboat, transferred S.R. 
and M.G. to the Zodiac. The USPP and Coast Guard were notified. 
The sinking craft was recovered by a private operator and towed to the 
marina concessioner at Great Kills. The two men were transferred to a 
Park Police boat. [Adam Prato, VUA, GATE, 9/14]

01-513 - Sagamore Hill NHS (NY) - Special Event

On September 14, 1901 Vice President Theodore Roosevelt took the oath 
of office of president upon the assassination of President William 
McKinley in Buffalo, New York, at a site now commemorated as Theodore 
Roosevelt Inaugural NHS. That centennial was observed at Roosevelt's 
Sagamore Hill home, 30 miles east of New York City, with a retiring of 
the colors ceremony conducted by Boy Scout Troop 269 of Seaford, New 
York, as a First Amendment activity. The troop also conducted another 
observance at Roosevelt's grave, which is a mile from the park. A 
centennial symposium on the Roosevelt presidency, sponsored in part by 
Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural and to be held in Buffalo, was cancelled 
by the Theodore Roosevelt Association due to the current emergency. 
Its executive director, Dr. John Gable, was present at Sagamore Hill 
instead and offered remarks to the small crowd about events current 
and past. With the sound of military aircraft covering President 
Bush's visit to the World Trade Center in the distance, Gable noted 
the sad irony of the national tragedy 100 years earlier, but added 
that the Theodore Roosevelt's presidency had turned the tragedy of 
1901 into a triumph for the American republic. He did not doubt that 
the same would occur again. In closing, Gable quoted Roosevelt: "This 
country has never yet been called upon to meet a crisis in war or a 
crisis in peace to which it did not eventually prove to be equal...I 
believe in the future - not in a spirit which will sit down and look 
for the future to work itself out, but with a determination to do its 
part in making the future what it can and shall be made." [Michael 
Shaver, SAHI, 9/15]

                   [Additional reports pending....]

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Prepared by the Division of Ranger Activities, WASO, with the 
cooperation and support of Delaware Water Gap NRA.

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JPEG picture format