Without risking the safety of others.

Earlier this year I reported a huge security lapse at an entertainment event that more than 50,000 people annually attend.

Please understand that I have good reason to not specify the event’s name, the city, or state which it was held in, nor the month the event occurred. And none of the photos presented in this blog are of the event.

I’m sharing this to provide insights into the Homeland Security phrase: If you see something, say something. As well as, help readers appreciate that even when security professionals try to provide crowd/event safety — they often can’t cover every vulnerability and sometimes they make mistakes.

Years of spotting security vulnerabilities: As an infantry officer I was trained to lead by example so my soldiers would know I would never ask them to do anything I wouldn’t do.

After Middle East terrorists began small-scale bomb attacks, I tried to understand how did Muslim terrorist commanders talk their foot soldiers into committing suicide missions that they would not do. Especially, bombings that had zip impact on the outcome of the religious war against Western nations.

Homeland Security vulnerabilities — Big events have big vulnerabilities

I concluded that America would remain safe until it faced a terrorist general as competent as U.S. generals trained to perform winning campaigns.

First, select a strategic goal to change the outcome of the war. Second, mass on the battlefield the needed men and material to accomplish the goal. Third, train the troops to tactically perform the mission using the supplied material / weapons / explosives.

I decided to alert people to such a situation. To do that I set out to write a book series and the third book would be a story about a terrorist general who causes a bad day for America. Silly me. I didn’t know how long it would take to get published.

American Flag, terriosts, explosions Gold Fire is written by Ed Mitchell — Gold Fire: Nuclear missile strike on the U.S.

During the years that I wrote and got the first two books published, I looked for security vulnerabilities as I traveled around the country as research for the third book. It became a habit for me to look for security vulnerabilities at stores, building, warehouses, storage yards, drinking-water systems, government facilities, airports, public events, etc. I even reported to airport officials three such vulnerabilities at a California airport.

Unfortunately, by the time I was halfway through drafting my third thriller the world of terrorism changed. Osama bin Laden and his operations officer Sheik Kahlid unleashed their attack in New York City. It proved bin Laden was an effective general. September 11, 2001 was a very bad day for America

Within 24-hours the FBI issued a warning to agriculture communities that terrorists might try to use crop-duster aircraft to spray poison on cities. I was amazed. I had written that very attack scheme in my third thriller. That’s when I realized that over the years I had become really good at spotting vulnerabilities. Plus, I could not release my story about terrorists striking inside our borders because I might reveal too many of our vulnerabilities. Instead, later I released Gold Fire where terrorists threaten America with nuclear-tipped ballistic missiles launched from overseas.

What I Recently found: While on a trip across America, I reached a city and learned in the local newspaper that an event I had always wanted to attend was going to occur the next day. Yippie! Let’s have some fun.

baseball events are targets for terrorists — Stadiums and field locations need security

Because I had never been in that town, and knowing thousands of cars and buses would show up, I bought tickets that afternoon and scouted my preferred parking area and entry gate. I also verified the earliest gate-opening time.

The next day, to avoid getting stuck in a mass of traffic, I arrived at the parking area shortly before the schedule opening time. This was my first mistake.

I showed the security fellow my entry ticket but was told the folks selling parking tickets for visitors hadn’t arrived yet. “Don’t worry”, he said, and directed me to turn my twenty-foot-long Class-B recreation vehicle left into an open parking lot, while he returned to handling the line of vehicles behind me.

RV used to reach American events not inspected — Class-B RV that was not inspected

It turned out that the “earliest parking time” I had been told was for participants, vendors, and media crews. So, now I was in the vendor parking area. A hundred people scheduled to work the booths selling all types of food, supplies, and souvenirs flowed out of the parking lot into the event area. TV crews also arrived and started their positioning.

I decided to scout a good viewing spot inside the venue. To my surprise, there was no security at the gate where vendors were going into and out of the event area. After talking to a TV reporter about where to find good seats, I found a great place to enjoy the event. Then I returned to my RV, and with my girlfriend carried armfuls of drinks and blankets back to the perfect viewing spot.

Concert Events have become terrorists targets — Having fun. Feeling safe.

Within a few hours we were surrounded by more than 50,000 other wild and crazy people, all having a grand time. The weather was perfect. The entertainment was wonderful. Even leaving the event along with thousands of other vehicles was easy.

It was only after driving out of town that I realized what a dim bulb I had been. I had stumbled upon a vulnerability that a domestic or foreign terrorist could easily exploit. But because I felt safe and was focused on having a fun time, I did not think about informing a guard that no security person was at the vendor gate. That was my second mistake.

I felt sick that if I had been a terrorist I could have carried a backpack bomb inside, or one stuffed in a cooler. Also, because no one looked inside my RV, I could have driven in with barrels of gas in my vehicle. So, the worst-case scenario could have been a bomb going off inside the event, forcing a crowd of people to escape into the parking lots, where a bigger RV-bomb explosion would mow them down. So, I tracked down the event manager an reported the security vulnerability so he could eliminate it before the next major event-day.

A Better Way: Should you attend an event in the future, hopefully you will avoid my self-absorbed behavior of being too complacent. And should you see something, say something, far more quickly than I did. Maybe the Homeland Security motto should be: if you see something, quickly say something. Also realize that you are only asking a security person to investigate your concerns. If there is no problem, there is no harm. But if a threat is detected, you helped protect innocent people.