To the editor:

It was stated in a recent letter written to the Journal-World that Lawrence doesn’t need an emergency command bus because there is no chance of a terrorist attack occurring here. Well, maybe the chances are low that terrorists would strike Lawrence, but I think the writer must have failed to read the entire article.

I volunteer for the Douglas County Auxiliary Communications Team, and one of our responsibilities is to drive and set up the current command bus. We have set it up for firefighters battling a blaze at a local athletic club; it has also been used recently for murder investigations in and around the Lawrence area. Plus we took it out and set it up after the tornado hit last May. I’m sure there are many other ways the money could be spent besides buying a new bus, but I think it’s pretty obvious that this apparatus is a very important piece of Lawrence and Douglas County’s ability to respond to all incidents and disasters.

Besides providing rest room facilities when there otherwise wouldn’t be any, the bus offers its own power and a large array of communications equipment capable of transmitting critical information from the incident to anywhere it needs to go. Maybe after the next disaster or large incident, the writer will see the need for the command bus and the many services it provides to our community. I hope we will continue to have a very valuable emergency command vehicle to use when the need arises.

Matt Withers,

Lawrence