US LARGEST Ammo Plant Conducts Mass Casualty Drill !!!

[Mrs. Sharon B. Hodge]

Oh I am sooo not alarmed at all, rest easy folks


Holston Army Ammunition Plant - This government-owned, contractor-operated ammunition and explosives plant is the largest capacity supplier of high performance explosives in the country. Among the many unique products produced here are the explosive powders used to trigger nuclear weapons. The 6,000-acre installation has 141 munitions storage magazines, around 900 employees, and was operated by the Holston Chemical Company, a subsidiary of the Eastman Chemical Company (which was spun off of Kodak in 1994), from the 1940's to the late 1990's (Eastman operates one of the largest chemical plants in the country in nearby Kingsport). In 1999, Royal Ordnance, a division of English defense giant BAE, took over operations.
Holston AAP has two locations, Plant A and Plant B, separated by 4 miles, but connected by a rail line It is the only site in the US for the production of certain types of explosives, including HMX and RDX



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Holston Army Ammunition Plant hosts mass casualty exercise
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Published 08/09/2008
By Kacie Dingus Breeding

Click To Watch Video

Medics tend to an "injured" soldier during a training exercise at HAAP Saturday.
Photo courtesy of Nancy Gray, HAAP

KINGSPORT — Mass casualties were picked up Saturday afternoon from Holston Army Ammunition Plant grounds following a terrorist attack that was nothing more than a special training exercise planned between the United States Army, Wackenhut Services Inc.
and Wings Air Rescue in Johnson City

“What we’ve been doing is setting up scenario-based training exercises in preparation for a terrorist attack, this situation being that we had a mass casualty exercise,” said Capt.
Joe Shipley, of the Army Reserve’s 7244 Medical Support Unit based in Kingsport

“Having Wings on board has enabled us to have a new level of intensity,” Shipley added.
With the use of the helicopter, “We were able to do hot loads and off loads with casualties”

Participants representing opposition forces (wearing make- shift robes and turbans) wore strapped to their chests fake explosive devices that gave off an audible sound in lieu of explosions.
As the insurgents burst out of the surrounding forest, they tossed bottled water like grenades toward soldiers and their comrades-in-training from Wackenhut

Military and non-military personnel alike worked together to secure and defend the area, retrieve casualties and deliver the injured to a Mountain States Health Alliance Wings Air Rescue chopper for transport from the scene

“We’d been planning this for quite some time,” said Lt. Col. Ron Cook of the 7244th.
“Our soldiers performed well, Holston Army Ammunition did an excellent job and I certainly hope that this exercise will strengthen our partnership and our relationship”

John Byington, project manager over fire and security personnel at HAAP, said it’s the first time his employees have had the opportunity to work side by side with military personnel. “It went very well, I’m very pleased with the way my guys reacted and the way they blended in with the Army Reserves and their patrol.
It appears that they got a lot of good training out of this,” he said

Occasionally, Byington said his employees train with SWAT from Sullivan and Hawkins Counties, but nothing like the tactical training provided Saturday.
“I hope we can do some more joint exercises with the Army,” Byington said, adding that he’s open to other entities coming in to train with them as well

“It’s just a wonderful opportunity to learn from each other. These are three organizations that don’t work together a lot.
So our take-away from this is to be able to learn the strengths of everybody so we can take that back to ourselves,” Shipley concluded