Midday on Feb. 24, Wisconsin State Patrol stated a traffic stop happened at around 11 a.m. on westbound I-90 at mile marker 31, in the Sparta, Wis., area — an area near the intersection of Highway 16 and Hilltop Road on the south side of Fort McCoy.
The subject of that traffic stop fledin the direction of Fort McCoy property on foot. In response, the Fort McCoy Directorate of Emergency Services (DES) Police Department, Monroe County Sherriff’s Department, Sparta Police Department and the Canadian Pacific Railway Police all responded to assist the Wisconsin State Patrol set up a cordon.
At one point, up to 25 officers from all agencies responded to the incident, said Fort McCoy DES Director Micah Komp. At that point, Acting Police Chief Brian Lord established an incident command post near the incident location on South Post of the installation.
“He then directed (an) evacuation,” Komp said. “We called … DPTMS (Directorate of Plans, Training, Mobilization and Security) personnel off the ranges and anybody that was working down there. … Dispatch also cleared, through the fire desk, and made sure there were no troops training in that area. We called (Directorate of Public Works), and we pulled all DPW personnel out of the area. We went through the list to get as many people out of the area as possible.”
And at the same time, Komp worked with senior leadership to have an immediate meeting about the ongoing response. “I brought all the directors on, and I made the recommendation for an Installation Emergency Operations Center (IEOC) level 2 activation … based on the potential outcomes of a scenario like this.”
The IEOC activation did take place a short time later. Notifications were sent out by DPTMS and personnel reported as required.
At the IEOC, further coordination continued. And it wasn’t long before the situation was deescalated as all reasonable means to locate the subject had been exhausted. The subject was found a short time later.
Though the incident response was started and ended in just a few hours, the Fort McCoy team responded quickly, Komp said. The IEOC activation worked in testing that capability and it allowed the team to practice in the center that was recently renovated with numerous improvements.
DES responded immediately with extra police patrols and maintained constant contact with civilian authorities as well, Komp noted.
“This (was) also our first time in the new IEOC,” Komp said. And he said the place looked awesome and noted everyone there was working online successfully.
“I appreciate your all support to DES and to the garrison,” Komp said to the Fort McCoy action officers at the IEOC. “I appreciate it.”
Staff from DPTMS also followed the event with full documentation of the installation’s response, officials said.
Fort McCoy’s motto is to be the “Total Force Training Center.” Located in the heart of the upper Midwest, Fort McCoy is the only U.S. Army installation in Wisconsin.
The installation has provided support and facilities for the field and classroom training of more than 100,000 military personnel from all services nearly every year since 1984.
Learn more about Fort McCoy online at \[https://home\.army\.mil/mccoy\]\(https://home\.army\.mil/mccoy\)\, on Facebook by searching “ftmccoy\,” on Flickr at https://www\.flickr\.com/photos/fortmccoywi\, and on X \(formerly Twitter\) by searching “usagmccoy\.”
Also try downloading the My Army Post app to your smartphone and set “Fort McCoy” or another installation as your preferred base. Fort McCoy is also part of Army’s Installation Management Command where “We Are The Army’s Home.”
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