Residents of East St. Louis, Ill., are upset that federal, state and local officials failed to inform them of an Army Special Forces helicopter assault drill, especially in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
According to a report by St. Louis CBS television affiliate KMOV, the drills last Monday night “caught thousands of residents off guard … because no one told them it was coming.”
The helicopters and associated Special Forces troops aboard them were practicing urban assault drills that were originally scheduled for last week but were held this week because rain forced the Army to cancel the Nov. 28-29 date.
KMOV said the choppers flew in from Fort Campbell, Ky. – home to the 160th Special Operations Group – to “simulate quick movements needed to approach an urban war zone.”
Nine helicopters were involved in the training. “Scared” locals reportedly saw the aircraft “hovering and darting around homes and buildings.”
The station said residents in St. Louis were treated to a similar mock urban “assault” a decade ago in the downtown area.
“It’s unclear whether citizens are required to be told the military is operating in their neighborhood, but given recent events, it seems like it is the proper thing to do,” said KMOV reporter Donn Johnson, who filed the story.
The East St. Louis “assault” mirrors similar urban training exercises throughout the 1990s reported by WorldNetDaily. In most of those cases, neither military nor civilian authorities provided local residents with advance warning of the drills.
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