TOPOFF 2 NATIONAL EXERCISE 2003

Top Officials Exercise 2 (TOPOFF 2) National Combating Terrorism Exercise began with simulated terrorist attacks targeting Seattle and Chicago with nuclear and biological weapons.  CRA Inc. was a principal member of the TOPOFF 2 (T2) National Exercise team which designed and managed the exercise. T2 was a five-day, full-scale exercise and simulation of how the Nation would respond to attacks with weapons of mass destruction (WMD).  The series of exercises from May 12 through 16th, 2003 was the largest civilian combating terrorism exercise in history, involving more than 6,000 participants in the United States and Canada, at venues including Chicago, Seattle, Washington, D.C. and in Vancouver and Ottawa, Canada. Players included first responders and Federal agencies , and included extensive engagement at the Cabinet level.

CRA developed an exercise design which was so realistic that Andy Prechtel, M.D. and Chief Resident in the Emergency Department at Advocate Christ Medical Center on Chicago's south side said that even knowing it was an exercise "...didn't lessen the adrenaline levels of hospital staff and trainees.  "I quickly realized how fast we would be overwhelmed if this was a real crisis."  Nancy Pasieta, RN, director of EMS and chair of Advocate Christ Medical Center's emergency management committee said that the hospital staff  "got firsthand knowledge of large-scale triaging and isolation to prevent contamination to caregivers and other patients in the facility," she says. In today's times, anyone might be called upon to make quick decisions about contamination, and they need to know how to protect themselves on a sustained scale for a whole week, she believes. TOPOFF really opened a lot of people's minds to what they could learn, and I think they learned a lot. Even the virtual news network was very well orchestrated. There were lots of events breaking simultaneously, requiring us to shift our attention and use critical thinking skills moment-to-moment. It was fortunate for the residents who had a chance to participate," she added.

CRA's exercise control personnel were at every domestic venue and at the exercise master control center in Arlington, VA., and most critically, we developed and managed the thousands of Master Scenario Events List elements that drove action during the week-long exercise. We coordinated conferences for key exercise participants during the planning and subsequent completion of T2 and worked with State officials. CRA supported the Advanced Distributed Learning Exercise by development and delivery of material for the eight-hour nationally televised tabletop exercise and the the Virtual News Network, a live simulated news broadcast that helped drive T2 play with more than 40 hours of studio and remote "news coverage."

Beyond the normal challenges associated with planning and conducting an exercise on this scale, T2 was a special case in that the original prime contractor was fired with less than nine months before exercise D-Day. In the ensuing transition to a new prime contractor, CRA provided the "glue" of institutional memory and expanded its staff with the experts needed to address the requirements of the project. With broader responsibilities, CRA staff folded seamlessly into the new prime contractor's team and helped ensure that the project was completed successfully and on time.

Following the TOPOFF 2 Exercise, CRA-USA applied the T2 scenario to design and execute a parallel, multi-venue exercise for the National Capital Region. This effort, accomplished on very short notice, involved only a 45-day planning cycle, however it resulted in a superb command post exercise that engaged the State emergency management staffs of Virginia, Maryland, and the District of Columbia.