Open house planned Saturday at depot

This story was published Thu, May 18, 2000

By the Herald Oregon bureau

HERMISTON - The Umatilla Chemical Depot will hold its annual Armed Forces Day open house from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday.

An opening ceremony features guest speakers Col. Walter Polley of the Army Soldier and Biological Chemical Command at the Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md., and Umatilla Mayor George Hash, a World War II prisoner of war.

Visitors may tour the depot, including the operations center and an empty igloo, and view the incinerator construction site from an overlook.

They also may see the site where six civilian workers died in 1944 when bombs exploded in a storage igloo.

The Army National Guard's 10th Weapons of Mass Destruction Civil Support Team will be on hand with its equipment to answer questions and give demonstrations.

The specialized team can quickly assess a suspected nuclear, biological, chemical or radiological event, said depot spokeswoman Mary Binder.

Binder said camouflage face-painting will be available for children, and kids can weave their way through an obstacle course and ride in armored vehicles.

The depot fire department will have special youth exhibits, and Wally Wise, the Chemical Stockpile Emergency Preparedness Program's mascot, will make appearances.

Other activities include exhibits from the Army's Chemical Disposal Outreach Office, Raytheon Demilitarization Co., CSEPP and depot natural resources and environmental restoration.

There also will be weapons firingÊdemonstrations, videos showing the depot's construction during World War II, an Oregon National Guard helicopter, armored vehicles, the depot's mobile chemical munition display trailer, one ofÊits mobile air-monitoring vans and plenty of community food booths.

Visitors may park at the depot's front entrance parking lot off Exit 177 on Interstate 84.

For more information, call 564-5312 or 564-5360.

 

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