Hi I'm Bob Rhoades and this is my page. As I stumble onto things I'll post them here and hope they'll be of interest to all of you.

At a recent full scale exercise I was the fire controller and an old acquaintenance of my was the evaluator. This was an IED type exercise at a school football game. Initial response was from the Twp. PD who did an excellent job of taping off the area and controlling the scene. The fire department arrived on the scene with a command vehicle, turned on the big green light and never stepped foot in it again. It was hard to watch an incident like this because the safety of responders was in jeopard… Continue

I have neglected the blog bujt have still been paying attention. I was involved with a large full scale exercise in Logan County, Ohio last weekend. While doing research on the after action repor. I stumbled onto a pretty neat program for accountability. It's called In Site Accountabilty System by Vernon Software. Check it out at www.vernonsoft.com. I think it's a good system.

Previously I posted a comment from Emmitsburg about the Master Exercise Program and I thought that I'd update that by explaining the program. The MEP certification means that a candidate has successfully completed three weeks of instruction on the development, control and evaluation of exercises. The Master Exercise Practitioner Program (MEPP) eligibility includes local, Tribal, State, Territorial, Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and other Federal agency emergency management/emergency

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After almost 17 years with the state of Ohio I decided it was time to move on. On December 15th I began working for a government contractor called L-3 Communications. They are the 8th largest contractor to the Feds and part of an even larger conglomerate. I am assigned to the Ohio Emergency Managment Agency and tasked with working on a team that develops and delivers exercises to the state agencies and the counties of Ohio.

Retired Fire Chief, Carl "Bud" Gray of the Arcanum Fire Department passed away early Tuesday morning. He was 80 years old. Bud served the village for over 40 years as a firefighter with many of those as chief. He was one old dog who could be taught new tricks. He called me one day and wanted to know if I would be interested in becoming the training officer for the department. He explained that he wasn't very happy with the way things were going. So, began a long relationship for me with the depa… Continue