Geek Gestalt

Several masks that have been evaluated for safety against various chemical 'agents' sit on a table at the Dugway Proving Ground. CNET News reporter Daniel Terdiman visited the facility as part of his Road Trip 2009 project.

(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET)

DUGWAY, Utah--In a world where American soldiers in Afghanistan or Iraq might find themselves under attack from chemical or biological weapons, who's looking out for their safety?

The answer lies deep in the western Utah desert, at a U.S. Army facility called the Dugway Proving Ground where, among other things, groups of scientists are researching how to defend against a wide variety of potentially lethal, or at least dangerous, "agents."

"Dugway's primary mission is testing United States and Allied chemical and biological (CB) defense systems and also performing nuclear, biological and chemical (NBC) contamination survivability testing of defense materiel," a fact sheet about Dugway reads. "With more than 50 years of experience, (Dugway) uses its state-of-the-art laboratories and chambers in concert with extensive field test grids to fully determine the performance characteristics of items being tested."

I visited Dugway this week as part of Road Trip 2009, and was given a tour and an explanation of both the facility's Chemical Test and Life Sciences divisions.

Photos: How the Army tests biological and chemical weapons

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Notwithstanding the official explanation from the fact sheet, as Raven Reitstetter, the acting division chief of the Chemical Test Division put it to me, Dugway's primary mission is to test protective equipment against chemical and biological agents. Everyone I talked to made the point that while some such agents are stored at Dugway--generally for no longer than 90 days--the purpose of the facility is strictly defensive. In fact, Dugway is not even authorized to produce chemicals.

And while there are certainly dangerous chemicals on hand at any given time, a series of safety systems, including multiple air filters, are designed, I was told, to make the air that leaves the Chemical Test Division cleaner than the air that goes in.

Of course, given the reality that there are actual dangerous chemicals being used in the facility, the division runs monthly safety and response drills so that if there ever is an accident, everyone involved is supposed to know what to do.

Two different kinds of labs
Within the Chemical division, there are two different kinds of labs. The first is for engineering systems to evaluate protective equipment, such as respirators and uniforms. The second is for analyzing the properties of various chemicals.

I was taken into one of the protective equipment labs and shown a system in which mannequins wearing special masks are hooked up to artificial lungs and subjected to various kinds of chemical agents. The question that is trying to be answered is when does the agent break through the protection. And the idea is to test the kinds of soldiers' outfits that are as close as possible to what they would have in an actual operational environment so that any analysis has real-world significance.

"We're in constant development for improving (the equipment) and making it closer to the physiological conditions of humans wearing this type of equipment," Reitstetter said.

Similarly, another of this type of lab is set up to examine how various kinds of protective clothing hold up to different chemicals. The scientists will take small swatches of clothing material, contaminate them inside a special "cup" and see whether the chemical breaks through. And as before, the conditions are meant to be as real-world as possible, so the scientists play around with different temperatures and relative humidity combinations to see how they affect the efficacy of the swatches.

The second type of lab is for analyzing chemicals. Using gas chromatographs (GC) that can detect the presence of even single digit parts per billion of chemical agents, the GC machines are designed to, among other things, separate simulants that mimic chemical agents based on their physical and chemical properties. The idea here is to learn the signatures of individual chemicals so that those in the field can learn to look for and detect them, and know how to neutralize them.

Ultimately, the point of the labs is to be able to give soldiers an affirmative answer to their most basic query about potential chemical attacks: will they be protected?

Biotechnology
After finishing up at the Chemical Test Division, I was taken to another part of the huge Dugway grounds. Here, I met Angelo Madonna, Dugway's Biotechnology branch chief.

Madonna and Lynnette Davila, a biosurety assistant, showed me around Dugway's Life Sciences Division, where scientists do similar work as the folks in the Chemical Test Division, except on biological agents.

The logo of the Critical Reagents Program, under which the Army is attempting to create standards for testing various biological materials.

(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET)

Within the Life Sciences Division, there are four branches: Aerosol technology, weapons of mass destruction (WMD) training, compliance and methodology and biological testing and antigen production, and each has a specific purpose.

The Aerosol technology branch is responsible for all field work and field tests. The WMD training branch is designed to give first responders, like firefighters, paramedics, police and others, training on the basics of dealing with "bugs," or biological agents. The compliance and methodology branch is meant to ensure that Dugway is following the kinds of new regulations for dealing with dangerous agents that have been in place since 2005. And, lastly, the biological testing and antigen production branch is responsible for the lab testing of such agents.

Again, the point was made to me that the purpose of the facility was strictly defensive. While the Life Sciences Division goes grow some kinds of agents for testing purposes, they're defensive, I was assured.

And as with the Chemical Test Division, Madonna and his colleagues are responsible for testing protective equipment and detectors and for decontamination when there's exposure to dangerous agents.

Davila explained that the facility was set up to deal with three levels of biological agents. Biological Safety Level 1 (BSL1) equates to the kinds of normal situations one might find anywhere. BSL2 is more serious, and agents in this category might make someone sick, but there's nearly 100 percent likelihood of their recovery, if treated. But BSL3 agents are the really scary ones, the ones that can easily kill someone or make them very sick. Still, most BSL3 agents are treatable.

However, BSL4 agents are pretty much deadly to anyone exposed to them, and as a result, even the facilities at Dugway are not generally authorized to work with them. If such an agent was discovered somewhere in the West, it might be brought to Dugway, but in general, the government would want any such agent to be taken to specific facilities geared for them.

Well within the building was what is known as the bioholding room. Here, the Life Sciences Division keeps its "reference stock," everything that comes out of the lab. But as a safety measure, everything that goes in the bioholding room is tracked "cradle to grave," Madonna explained. The lab keeps codes for everything and that code follows each sample or specimen everywhere it goes.

The idea is so that anyone who needs to can account for every bit of every biological agent that comes into or is made in the building.

One of the important tasks of the Life Sciences Division is to generate non-pathogenic simulants that various military or civilian field directors need for their testing projects. Madonna said the lab produces what they need, "to their specs."

Ultimately, Madonna and his colleagues are responsible for passing the data onto what is known as the Army Evaluation Center, where they are then passed onto decision makers higher up the chain of command who determine policy based on the information they're given.

Practicing for when terrorists strike
Before I left Dugway, I was taken even further out into the vast desert to Mustang Village, a tiny mock town set up for military and civilian outfits to practice their response to terrorist attacks.

In the village are several buildings including a small hotel, an even smaller post office, and a store, all of which can be used to practice one eventuality or another. In the hotel, for example, scenario training is given on recognizing bomb or chemical or biological agent production labs and distinguishing between them and, say, a meth lab, which, while illegal, isn't all that dangerous.

Departing Dugway, I was left evermore with the impression that a lot of bad things can happen in the world these days, and that a lot of people feel deeply committed to the task of stopping those things from happening, or at least getting ready for them in case of disaster.

Yet, we know that disaster does, indeed, become reality. September 11, Hurricane Katrina, fires in Southern California and, of course, wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have put tremendous numbers of Americans in harm's way, not to mention those from other countries.

The Army, then, wants its own people, and the public at large, to feel some comfort in the idea that it has put a group of seasoned professionals in charge of coming up with the data that the country's policymakers can use to guard our soldiers in the field and our civilians at home and abroad against the effects of non-conventional attacks.

For the next several weeks, Geek Gestalt will be on Road Trip 2009. After driving more than 12,000 miles in the Pacific Northwest, the Southwest and the Southeast over the last three years, I'll be writing about and photographing the best in technology, science, military, nature, aviation and more in Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, South Dakota and Colorado. If you have a suggestion for someplace to visit, drop me a line. And in the meantime, join the Road Trip 2009 Facebook page and follow my Twitter feed.

VICE, from Dynamic Animations System, gives Army recruits a way to learn how to handle themselves in combat situations before they venture onto physical training grounds. Those who have gone through the VICE training seem to do better than those who haven't in head-to-head situations.

(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET News.com)

Updated at 8:20 p.m. PDT to correct name of the M1A1 trainer to Abrams.

FORT BENNING, Ga.--There must be a million ways the U.S. Army trains its newest infantry recruits, but when CNET News.com comes to town to do a story, the service rolls out the latest digital simulators.

Not long after I arrived at this giant military installation near Columbus, Ga., for one of my last stops on Road Trip 2008, I was escorted into a building to see VICE, the Virtual Interactive Combat Environment trainer. It's a system from Dynamic Animation Systems that puts recruits through what the Army hopes is a realistic set of battle-like exercises designed to get them ready for physical training later on.

It's hard not to mistake VICE for a big video game, since it runs on several large digital screens on which you can see animated battles that would look very familiar to anyone familiar with most any modern war game, especially those that are multiplayer.

When I walked in the room, a squad of soldiers was playing with VICE, each one with their own station.

The idea is that a drill sergeant can take a squad through various battle scenarios using the simulator, and each soldier will see their own avatar in the digital mission, as well as those of his squadmates, and working with a weapon that includes an Xbox-like controller. At least those, that is, who each would be able to see if they were on a battlefield in real life.

At the same time, the sergeant has access to a set of screens that can show him everything that's going on with the squad, in real time. This way, he can see exactly how each soldier is doing in the scenario training and, later, use what has been learned to help each recruit work on what he needs to do better.

Because it's digital, VICE (see video below) allows the Army to change up almost any imaginable variable: Terrain, enemy strength, whether it's Iraq or Afghanistan or almost anything else. Indeed, the system allows for running through digital versions of real-life missions.

All of this is aimed at two major things. First, getting new soldiers familiar with how to work together as a team before they ever set foot on a real-life training battlefield. And second, getting the recruits to that point without having to use any ammunition, which can be quite expensive.

Further, it can help insulate them against the shock of something like an IED--improvised explosive device--which is hard to do on a training battlefield. And even as I watched, the room shook with a loud boom as an "IED" was set off in the middle of the mission.

According to those who have used VICE, it is a great tool, even if it looks more like something you'd find in a video arcade than a high-level military training system.

"You can always tell the difference between" those who have used VICE and those who haven't, a private told me. That's because, he said, VICE-trained soldiers have better communications skills, both verbal and nonverbal.

But not every new Army recruit is getting access to VICE. Rather, it's limited to a single battalion at Fort Benning right now, due to budget constraints.

Finished with VICE, I was taken to another simulator on the base that is being used to help raw recruits with their efficiency.

This one was called the Engagement Skills Trainer, or EST.

At Fort Benning, two soldiers use the Engagement Skills Trainer, or EST, a simulator that helps soldiers learn shooting fundamentals without having to fire actual weapons.

(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET News.com)

Here Sgt. Darren Shavers demonstrated how the Army is using digital technology to help thousands of new soldiers become better marksmen and markswomen.

EST is a large-scale system that can accommodate up to 15 soldiers at once in training exercises designed to help them with their marksmanship, teamwork, and rules of engagement responses, otherwise known as "shoot/don't shoot."

Essentially, EST is a digital firing range. On one side of a long, dark room, a soldier lay on the floor, aiming a machine gun at a large screen with targets on the opposite end.

He fired several shots, which retorted loudly, but which weren't actually live-fire.

On the screen, however, Shavers was able to punch a few keys on his computer, and up popped a large-scale version of the soldier's target, showing how accurate he'd been.

With EST, the Army can learn exactly how accurate they're being, even down to how long they hold their triggers, how much they move their guns before and after they shoot, and whether they aim from the left or the right.

The idea is to drill fundamentals into the recruits, trying to get them to do things the same way every time, again without having to put them onto real training fields before they're ready.

Similarly, EST can be used to work on scenarios in which soldiers have to make split-second decisions based on the Army's rules of engagement. As Shavers put it, this way, recruits can screw up without having to be court-martialed for shooting a civilian by accident.

EST also helps teams of soldiers learn how to work together, since they can run through scenarios in groups--again, things that would be hard to do with traditional training exercises, Shavers said.

My last stop of the day was to the CCTT, or Close Combat Tactical Trainer. This facility at first looked like it just featured a bunch of large, nondescript yellow boxes and little more.

But look closer, and each of the yellow boxes contained a trainer for one kind of armored vehicle or another.

The idea here is that each trainer is equipped to look and feel almost exactly like the corresponding real vehicle.

That way, after a soldier has spent time in, say, the M1A1 Abrams trainer, they should feel right at home in a real M1A1 Abrams.

The inside of an M1A1 tank simulator at Fort Benning. The simulator, part of the CCTT, or Close Combat Tactical Trainer, gives soldiers a way to experiment with being inside a vehicle in such a way that everything is set up inside exactly how it would be in the real version.

(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET News.com)

This is a common training system. NASA uses it for Space Shuttle crews, for example. The idea is to get people used to being in a vehicle, knowing where all the flips and switches are, how to use the weapons systems, and how to share the tiny spaces with fellow soldiers--all without having to deal with the reality of incoming fire.

You'd never know what was inside the big yellow boxes, of course, if you weren't told, but inside, you'd think you were in a real tank. And that's just the idea.

Plus, each of the training simulators is tied together through a networked computer system so groups of soldiers can run through exercises as if they were on a real battlefield, and a "commander" can put them through their paces, monitoring and measuring everything they do.

It's very much like what goes on with VICE and EST, and if one theme came out of my day at Fort Benning, it's that the Army is very much into using these kinds of systems as a way of increasing efficiency and saving a lot of money on the ammunition that would otherwise have to be expended during training.

This way, by the time these soldiers get their hands on live weapons, they actually know what they're doing, whereas generations of previous recruits were tasked with learning how to use real weapons on real training grounds.

And that's not to say that the old way wasn't good. But the Army clearly believes that there's a future in digital training.

Now, if only it can use digital systems to overcome 18-year-olds' natural aversion to authority and sense that they can do no wrong. Then technology would really be on to something.

This newly constructed levee protects an affluent neighborhood of New Orleans from Lake Pontchartrain, which is just across the street. The levee is made out of a thick clay and will be seeded with grass in order to help prevent erosion of the wall by water that might overtop the levee in the case of a major storm surge.

(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET News.com)

NEW ORLEANS--When I wrote Wednesday that large parts of this city are still severely damaged from Hurricane Katrina and, in some cases, potentially beyond recovery, I didn't want to leave the impression that nothing is being done to protect against the next big hurricane.

In fact, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is putting large sums of money and significant effort into helping to reduce the risk that a future storm of Katrina's magnitude will inundate New Orleans.

All told, the Corps of Engineers here are working to fix and/or replace 220 miles of levees and floodwalls; build new flood gates and pump stations at the mouths of three outfall canals; and strengthen existing walls and levees at important points. More than $1.2 billion worth of contracts have been awarded for such work.

Of course, the Corps wants New Orleans' residents to know that nothing it can do will guarantee their protection. In fact, Corps public information officer Randall Cephus told me that the agency's efforts have been rebranded as risk management rather than hurricane protection because of a sense that the latter gave people a false impression that they would surely be safe in a Katrina-level event.

As part of Road Trip 2008, I spent several hours this week with Cephus, driving around New Orleans as he showed me a series of the Corps' major projects.

And while there is certainly a significant amount of distrust of the Corps' past, present, and future efforts, it cannot be said that the organization is doing nothing.

One of the first things Cephus showed me was a crew working on a levee adjacent to Lake Pontchartrain. The efforts focus on keeping floodwaters from eroding the levee from behind, should the water top it. That type of erosion happened during Katrina, and it's obviously a serious danger to the city.

As a result, the Corps has developed two systems for dealing with this problem. First is using a thick clay to build the levees and then planting grass on them as a way to build roots that can bind the clay and help prevent the erosion.

Another way is to top the levee with cement splash guards, or armor as Cephus called it. This, too, is designed to keep the walls from eroding from behind.

As I reported Wednesday, the city's Lower Ninth Ward is still--and is likely to remain for a very long time--a disaster area. Many residents there fear that a future hurricane will result in additional flooding that will wipe away any gains made there.

But one plan the Corps has for avoiding this is to build what it calls a surge reduction barrier out beyond the mouth of the Bayou Bienvenue, which was part of what flooded the district during Katrina. The barrier would be designed to hold back storm surge that is heading toward the Lower Ninth Ward--as well as New Orleans East and the St. Bernard Parish, which were both also severely damaged by Katrina--from the east. This, however, is only a concept, and no work has been done on it yet.

A second source of flooding during Katrina was a breach in the city's 17th Street Canal.

This new gate system is designed to protect New Orleans from storm surge that would push up through the 17th Street Canal, which breached during Hurricane Katrina.

(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET News.com)

As a result, the Corps built--and began operation of in 2006--what is known as an outfall canal closure structure. This is essentially a gate that is 27 feet tall, 12 feet wide and 15 inches thick and features 280 tons of reinforced steel and can be shut down in the case of a hurricane and which, it is hoped, will prevent a major storm surge from inundating the canal.

The system also includes a series of major pumps designed to push water that does get through--either from topping the gate or from torrential rains--back out of the canal and into Lake Pontchartrain. The hope is that by doing so, the floodwalls along the canal will never be breached again.

Cephus said it's important to recognize is that no single piece of the risk prevention system can itself protect the whole city from a future hurricane. Rather, he pointed out, it is a complex system made up of innumerable parts, each of which shoulders the burden for a piece of the puzzle.

Many New Orleans residents think that the Corps has dragged its feet and that it can't be trusted to do what is necessary to protect the city. But Cephus maintains that the agency is working hard to help prepare for the next giant storm.

Of course, if such a storm were to happen in the next couple of years, there could be serious problems. That's because the entire body of risk prevention work that the Corps is doing here isn't expected to be completed until 2011. And some question even that date.

But some projects are already finished, and others are close. As can be expected with such a complex system--with more than 140 total projects involved--individual pieces will come on line, one after another, over the interim period.

The pump system behind the new 17th Street Canal gate is designed to push water out of the canal in case of a hurricane. The idea is to keep the canal from flooding and potentially breaching, as it did during Hurricane Katrina.

(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET News.com)

One project that has already been completed is the renovation of many of the floodwalls along the various canals that lead into the city. Previously, they were built with what is known as an I-Wall construction. This involved a series of piles coming down from underneath the wall that just drove straight down below the surface, with no additional support on either side. This style of wall was proven to be inadequate for the amount of water that came from Katrina's storm surge.

Now, the Corps has updated the walls with what is called a T-Wall construction. This system involves piles driven as far as 67 feet below the surface, as well as a series of diagonal steel support beams on either side that go down as far as 110 feet.

Whether these new style walls will stand up to the next great hurricane is, of course, unknown. But the Corps and the thousands of New Orleans residents are hopeful that everyone involved has learned from the past and that the pain experienced by so many during and after Hurricane Katrina will never be repeated.

'Second Life' users can donate to charity on the 'Second Life' Christmas island through December 31.

(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET News.com)

If you're a Second Life user and you're feeling charitable in these last days before Christmas, I've got something you may want to look into.

And that is the appropriately named Second Life Christmas initiative (free Second Life account required to connect). It's an island in the virtual world full of opportunities to donate to various causes, as well as to bid in a silent auction on a number of different items.

Money collected through the program will be donated to the Province Empty Stocking Fund, a charity that helps various organizations in the Canadian province of British Columbia, including several Salvation Army units.

There will also be a silent auction, with various prizes available, including two iPod Touches. And, full disclosure, I have agreed to donate copies of my book on SL entrepreneurship to the silent auction.

Many people think of virtual worlds like Second Life as empty vessels where there is little to do and where participants are only interested in dressing up like furries. But the reality is that SL, at least, is full to brimming with just about every kind of activity you can imagine, including the chance to make a difference during these cold winter months.

So far, SL users have donated more than $400 to the cause. It's not that much, but it's better than nothing. And you could help make that number more impressive.

So, if you're a SL user, I hope you'll take a moment to stop by and help out.