We have all been working toward NIMS Compliance over the last year. One of the fundamental ideas behind NIMS is a clear and concise chain of command. It is meant to decrease freelancing. This situation defied that logic. Too much CONTROL and NO COMMAND makes the system fail miserably. This is not a BLAME GAME POST. All levels of government and private sector who were involved in the emergency preparedness planning and response are to blame. What must be learned from this is where do we go from here. Is so much emphasis put on control that everyone is afraid to make a decision? Should the federal response been broken down into smaller areas with commanders in the field having the authority to bring all necessary resources to bear. Should Local and State governments rights be pushed aside when the catastrophe is on such a scale that they cannot or will not respond? Is terrorism preparedness hurting natural disaster response. In my mind the response to both should be very similar. We had hurricanes last year and the system seemed to have worked. Chaos rules at every incident in the first moments. Maybe when you look at the scope of this tragedy that moment was several days instead of a few minutes or even hours. Good fire departments learn from their mistakes and from their triumphs. We must do the same here. But it must be done in a professional manor. I do believe that Firefighters, EMS, and all first responders that are willing to volunteer should be preregistered by FEMA and have all their necessary documentation in place so that the response time is much faster.