WMDs, Car Accidents and Cal

Today I came in early for a pretty sweet assignment. The National Guard was running a day of WMD disaster training on a local military base. They had a miniature town built in a warehouse, which they filled with 70 volunteer victims, complete with graphic makeup-enhanced injuries. In this scenario, a truck containing a deadly virus ran into a building that housed military families. Casualties were abound.

Decked out in haz-mat suits, the soldiers went through the building, examining the various wounded civilians and safely removing them from the building. They were extradited to a colony of tents...

...where they were decontaminated and operated upon.

It was awesome. The make-up, the smoke, the dramatic enactments... it was a photog's dream. The station asked me to shoot a nat-pack if it was anything cool. Since it was cool, I shot the hell out of it. I got interviews with the commander of the region's National Guard, with soldiers, with victims. I got sound from rescuers. I got sound from victims in agony. I got nats here, I got nats there. It was gonna be my finest work.

After being on site for four hours, they tell me... "We'll make it a vo-sot (AKA an "honorable mention"), go to this car accident instead." Actually the story was dropped from the show completely.

It's tough being an artist in a newsman's world.

That aside, it was still a pretty cool experience. After being heavily addicted to numerous seasons of 24, it's always cool to see that stuff going down in real life... or at least training for it. When a virus broke out in season 3, people were shot to keep them from leaving the contaminated area. That didn't happen today... but it could have.

So my day of 24-related adventures came to an end without the Emmy-material nat-pack. However, after tonight's transpirings, I just can't stay disappointed...

That's the first (and probably the last) time I've ever supported the Beavers. Stupid Cal don't feel so good now, do they?

Go Ducks.