Utah Army base locked to solve 'serious concern'

[Raineyrocks]

This reminds me of The Stand by Stephen King

Utah Army base locked to solve 'serious concern'
(AP) – 1 day ago

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A Utah military base that carries out tests to protect troops against biological attacks was locked down Wednesday to resolve a "serious concern," officials said.

Base commander Col. William E. King said no one was in danger and the gates will reopen as quickly as it's feasible.

His statement did not provide any details of the problem.

Base spokeswoman Bonnie Robinson told the The Associated Press early Thursday that officials hope to have the problem resolved shortly.

"We are working as quickly and as thoroughly as possible to resolve a serious concern within the Test Area," King said.

"Measures like these (lock down of our gates) are not taken lightly. No one is in immediate danger but these steps are required," he said.

The Salt Lake Tribune reported that a lockdown began at 5:24 p.m. MST Wednesday, with no one allowed in or out of the base. There were about 1,200 to 1,400 people at Dugway at the time.

Military weapons are tested at Dugway, located about 85 miles southwest of Salt Lake City. Its primary mission is defending troops against biological and chemical attacks.

Copyright © 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

[Raineyrocks]

Military
Missing 'Nerve Agent' Caused Base Lockdown at Utah Army Base

Published January 27, 2011
FoxNews.com
Officials say a missing vial of nerve agent is responsible for a lockdown overnight at a Utah military base that carries out tests to protect troops against biological attacks, Fox13now.com reports.

The Army says Dugway Proving Ground, where military weapons are tested, was locked down for hours over a missing vial of VX "nerve agent." The amount missing was less than one fourth of a teaspoon and it was recovered at around 3 a.m., according to the station.

VX nerve agent affects the body's ability to carry messages through the nerves.

The Army says no one was in danger and the lockdown was ordered as a precaution. Between 1,200 and 1,400 people were inside the facility at the time.

Dugway is about 85 miles southwest of Salt Lake City.

A news release from the base on Thursday said, "during a routine inventory of sensitive material in the chemical laboratory, Dugway officials discovered a discrepancy between the records and the agent on-hand. As a precaution, the commander immediately locked down the installation and began efforts to identify the cause of the discrepancy."

No employees on the base were injured, a spokeswoman for Dugway told the station.

Click here for more on the Utah military base lockdown at Fox13now.com

[Raineyrocks]

Yay, they reopened! 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/27/AR2011012701061.html

Utah Army post reopens after nerve agent found
Network NewsX Profile
By JENNIFER DOBNER
The Associated Press
Thursday, January 27, 2011; 4:23 PM

DUGWAY PROVING GROUND, Utah -- The Army said Thursday that Dugway Proving Ground, where military weapons are tested, was locked down for hours because a small amount of a nerve agent was unaccounted for.

The amount missing was less than one-fourth of a teaspoon of VX nerve agent, which affects the body's ability to carry messages through the nerves.

The missing vial prompted a lockdown late Wednesday afternoon that lasted nearly 14 hours.

Post commander Col. William E. King said the nerve agent was never unsecured but had been incorrectly placed in a mislabeled container after a test on Tuesday at a base lab. The error was detected during a routine inventory check.

"It's an unfortunate oversight but one that we take very seriously," King said at a news conference outside of the base gates in Utah's Skull Valley, about 85 miles southwest of Salt Lake City.


King said he has halted all testing and handling of chemical weapons on the post until an internal review of procedures can be conducted. Staff will also be retrained.

Surveillance camera video from the lab showed no one had access to the vial during the hours it was unaccounted for. The vial was both stored in a secondary container and locked inside a vault, and multiple security systems are in place, King said.

"It's not very easy to get in to our vault," he said.

After an initial investigation, King said he believes there was "no malicious intent" on the part of the two base employees who had conducted the tests. However, Army and FBI investigators were still talking with the pair on Thursday to determine what went wrong.

King said he did not yet know whether any disciplinary action would result from their actions.

No one was in danger and the lockdown was ordered as a precaution, King said.

Between 1,200 and 1,400 people were inside the facility at the time. They included military personnel, contractors and civilian workers. About 850 people live on the base.

"All of our employees are safe and there is no damages that I know of," Bonnie Robinson, a post spokeswoman, said Thursday morning.

Dugway is used to test military weapons, but its primary mission is defending troops against biological and chemical attacks.

Encompassing more than 800,000 acres of desert, the post also is used by the U.S. Army Reserves and the U.S. National Guard for maneuver training.

VX is just one of numerous deadly chemicals tested and handled at the base. A persistent chemical agent, VX can be "very deadly" if it makes contact with the skin, but the amount of material in the misplaced vial was so small that only a few people might have been affected, King said.

"VX, normally from a warfare perspective, would be put out in gallons," he said.

[CJS]

This is right out of that King book "The Stand" The first thing that popped into my head was "Captain Tripps".

[Raineyrocks]

This is right out of that King book "The Stand" The first thing that popped into my head was "Captain Tripps".

Yup, me too! 

[littlehawk]

chemtrails gone bad.

[Russell Kanning]

when i lived in slc they always told us the main thing going on there was destruction of old nerve gas bombs
we used to play the high school basketball team out there