Fort McCoy police, fire personnel support 2021 Monroe County National Night Out

Police and fire personnel with Fort McCoy’s Directorate of Emergency Services (DES) took numerous vehicles and equipment to support the 18th annual Monroe County National Night Out event Aug. 3 in Tomah, Wis.

Hundreds of people attended the event, which was held for four hours at Tomah’s Winnebago Park. It was the first time the event was held in two years; the COVID-19 pandemic canceled the 2020 event.

Introduced in 1984 by the National Association of Town Watch, National Night Out is a nonprofit crime-prevention organization that works in cooperation with thousands of crime-watch groups and law-enforcement agencies throughout the country. Representatives of the Tomah Police Department said local officials know it helps build relationships that help create safe communities.

Fort McCoy DES had 10 pieces of equipment and vehicles as well as 15 people from both the police and fire departments at the event. Fort McCoy police personnel also educated people about Operation Family Safe, which included EZ child-identification (ID) stations that provided ID materials for 70 children.

“The youngest child I’m tracking was 18 months old, and the oldest was 17 years old,” said Sgt. Kevin Eckelberg, operations sergeant with the DES Police Department.

DES Deputy Police Chief Brian Lord said the police department had plenty to offer the hundreds of people who visited them.

“For National Night Out, we offered child car-seat safety inspections, we had conservation law enforcement officers on site, and we provided tours of all the equipment,” Lord said. “And a major thing we always bring to this event is the EZ child ID stations.”

Lord said supporting these kinds of events community members to get to know law enforcement and other emergency-services personnel.

“I think these events are crucial for law enforcement and fire alike,” Lord said. “It gives us an opportunity to socialize with the public that we see on a day-to-day basis. Fort McCoy police officers are so much more than people working at the gate. This type of event helps people understand that, and it’s crucial.

Among the several items Fort McCoy firefighters brought to the event was a smoke house, which is a trailer designed to teach people about the effects of smoke in structure in case of a fire. The trailer brought to the 2021 National Night Out was recently acquired by DES.

“It is set up with a kitchen on one side which simulates a fire in the oven, on the stove top, in the cabinet above the stove and in the trash can, and there’s a smoking outlet,” said Fort McCoy Fire Inspector Curt Ladwig, who also manages fire prevention for the installation. “This teaches the public how to handle a kitchen fire, for turning off the oven in the event of an oven fire, and to the use of a fire extinguisher.”

In addition to Fort McCoy people and equipment, the event also had dozens of not-for-profit organizations with various exhibits, information booths, and displays on subjects like nutrition, school bus safety, biking safety, storm spotting, parenting, water safety, electricity safety, seatbelt use, boating safety, all-terrain vehicle safety, poison control, mental health, and first aid.

The next National Night Event for Monroe County is planned for August 2022.

Learn more about Fort McCoy online at https://home.army.mil/mccoy, on Facebook by searching “ftmccoy,” and on Twitter by searching “usagmccoy.” Also try downloading the Digital Garrison app to your smartphone and set “Fort McCoy” or another installation as your preferred base.