Wednesday, August 14, 2013

Dash to Nashville?

Last Friday was suppose to be the first day I started my new working late schedule (9:00 to 5:30) in the office. Alas that would have to wait. At 6 a.m. my phone went off with the wonderful klaxon alarm. That ring tone is set aside for just one number: the ENS. ENS is our Emergency Notification System that alerts us to all things of a critical nature. This ENS notice told us to report to the office by 8 a.m. and be in Nashville by 8 p.m. that night.  So I jump in the shower, grab some breakfast, and get to the office at 6:45. We start loading up all of our gear including our portable satellite system, the GATR.

We have a briefing at 8:00 and they inform us we will not actually be traveling all the way to Nashville. Instead, we are driving down to the local grocery store, rally there, and return to the office. Once back home, we have to set up an office and start working using nothing but power at our existing offices.  I set up three redundant layers of satellite communications (GATR above, BGAN left, and Iridium below), just to prove we are self sufficient.  They reviewed all of our equipment and made sure everyone had everything they should need, right down to our clothes.  Luckily, they did not count our underwear (this time).

Finally, at noon, they told us we passed (for the most part) and that we could take everything down.  We packed everything up, put the stuff away, and then took off for the weekend.

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