Voice of the Mid-Columbia
Kennewick, Pasco and Richland, Washington


Umatilla depot commander leaving post with rockets destroyed

Published Monday, May 28th, 2007

JEANNINE KORANDA, HERALD OREGON BUREAU

HERMISTON -- Lt. Col. Donna Rutten has no problem picking her proudest moment during her time in charge of the Umatilla Chemical Depot -- the day the final shipment of GB sarin-filled M55 rockets were delivered to the incinerator.

"I'm so happy with the rockets because that is where the risk was," she said.

For the past two years, Rutten has commanded the Army depot near Hermiston. On July 12, her successor, Lt. Col. Robert Stein, will take over.

When Rutten took command, the depot and its incinerator had been destroying sarin-filled rockets for almost a year. With the end of her time in Hermiston approaching, she could oversee the Oregon site's final shipment of the sarin-filled projectiles.

But not even that will top getting rid of the rockets, she said. That's because one exploding rocket could potentially detonate several others, sending a vapor cloud of sarin into the air and those were the most dangerous to the community, she said.

During her tenure, about 3,368 steel reinforced shipping containers have ferried sarin-filled munitions to the site's incinerator where the weapons are drained and burned. About 155 shipments remain until all the sarin-filled weapons are out of their protective storage bunkers.

"It could be right down to the wire," she said.

The depot command change-over is a biannual event and has not influenced the processing or shipping schedule, said Bruce Henrickson, depot spokesman.

In her final months, Rutten has been focused on preparing the depot staff and surrounding community for the next part of the campaign -- VX nerve agent.

Both sarin and VX attack the central nervous system and are potentially deadly but they are slightly different. GB sarin evaporates at the same rate as water so it can spread quickly in a vapor cloud, Rutten said.

VX is more like a thick oil with very little vapor, she said. It is more deadly if it comes in contact with the skin.

Rutten has started talking to emergency responders near the depot about the differences they can expect with the new agent.

She hopes her successor will continue a similar dialogue.

"It is important to keep communication open with the leaders of the communities," she said.

When Rutten leaves Hermiston, she will be moving to a staff position at U.S. Northern Command in Colorado Springs which monitors threats in Alaska, Canada, Mexico and the continental United States.

Her successor, Stein, graduated from Washington and Jefferson College in Washington, Pa., in 1988 and entered the Army. Since 2005, he has been serving in the Republic of Korea as the U.S. Forces Korea/Combined Forces Command chemical officer.