Camp Gruber's future as a homeland security training center are numbered

Friday, April 9th 2004, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

There is an uncertain future for a homeland security training program in Oklahoma. The program is one of only a few in the nation that simulates terrorist attacks to train local first responders.

The National Homeland Security Training Center at Camp Gruber serves the Midwest and the South. Directors say it's vital in states like Oklahoma, where 72% of firefighters are volunteers. But because of a Defense Department shift to concentrate on the front lines of Iraq, the program has been left to fend for itself.

Ed Bundy with the National Homeland Security Training Center: "At the end of July our official funding runs out. Without that we don't know where the funding will come from and there's a distinct possibility that the national homeland security training center will shut down all together."

The center was funded the past two years through the Department of Defense with congressional help. Now there's a change of thinking in Washington DC.

Some say it should be funded through the Department of Homeland Security. A grant could keep the program going, but without it, next month's exercise could be the center's last.