Weapons Of Mass Destruction Facility For North Carolina Dedicated

At 1:00 PM yesterday, North Carolina held a dedication ceremony for the two new buildings composing the Weapons of Mass Destruction center for the 42nd Civil Support Team. This is an impressive new North Carolina facility that everyone in the state and the nation is praying will never be needed. Two buildings compose the new facility, the Admin Building (below), and the Garage (second picture below).






The facility is located at the Greenville Airport. The dedication ceremony was held inside the garage where a sort of auditorium facility had been set up for the day. Invited guests (below), band (second picture below) and the 42nd Civil Support Team (third picture below) were already gathered when I arrived. The band was playing some great patriotic and marching music.






There was an area set up at the end of the facility with charts depicting significant information about the 42nd Civil Support Team and the new Weapons of Mass Destruction facility that was being dedicated to help them perform their role. The charts were very helpful (all 5 shown below).









The officials for the event entered in two groups, one group sitting in a special reserved section (shown below) and the other sitting in the area indicated as the dais (second picture below).




Present for the Ceremony were (shown above from left), Greenville Mayor, Don Parrott, State Representative Edith Warren, State Representative Marian McLawhorn, Secretary of the NC Department of Crime Control and Public Safety Brian Beatty, Major General William Ingram - Adjutant General, State Command Sergeant Major Steve Boyles, Lt Colonel Chris Johnson, Lt Colonel Danny Mills - Commander of the 42nd Civil Support Team, and First Sergeant Wayne Stroud. Not present this day was Brigadier General David L. Jennette, Jr., Army Forces Commander.

After introduction of the dignitaries, first speaker was Mayor Don Parrott.



Secretary Brian Beatty, N.C. Department of Crime Control and Public Safety spoke about the role of the Civil Support Team and its critical nature during any event that presents the possibility that Weapons of Mass Destruction are used.



The first Military representative to speak was Lt Colonel Danny Mills, the Commander, 42nd Civil Support Team.




Keynote Speaker for the event was Major General William Ingram, Jr.





At this point, everyone adjourned outside for the ribbon cutting service itself.




The four people chosen to cut the ribbon were (from left above in both pictures) Lt Colonel Danny Mills, Major General William Ingram, Secretary Brian Beatty and Mayor Don Parrott.



There were a great number of people of interest in the group who attended the ribbon cutting ceremony. Michael Sprayberry (shown on left above) Deputy Director and Operations Chief of the North Carolina Department of Crime Control & Public Safety, Betty Jo Shepheard, Regional Director for Senator Richard Burr, Janet Bradbury, Regional Director for Senator Elizabeth Dole, and Brigadier General Bud Martin, Commanding General of the Joint Task Force.




The end of the event was an opportunity for everyone to visit with old friends and people they often talked with but rarely got to see. If it were not for the sobering topic being discussed, it would have been a great event. We all need to pray that this facility is never needed.

I thank the 42nd Civil Support Team and all the North Carolina National Guard for their dedication to maintaining our safety.