ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, January 2, 1997 TAG: 9701020068
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
SOURCE: Associated Press
IN SPITE OF REVENUE from ticket sales for presidential inaugural events, taxpayers still end up footing part of the bill.
Forget the fireworks and glamorous balls. For hundreds of military officials mobilizing for President Clinton's second inauguration, this is just another exercise, complete with a command post.
Inside an inaugural ``war room,'' five clocks track various time zones, 10 TV monitors display network news and The Weather Channel, and drills are organized and run to prepare for possible disaster or delay.
Situation: The commander-in-chief's speech goes long. Response: Alert the remote command posts that ``everything is starting to slide.''
``This is a little less hectic,'' said Lt. Col. Stephen Campbell, comparing his inaugural communication assignment to his last Army operation - the deployment of U.S. troops to Bosnia.
That mission initially involved just 2,000 soldiers. It will take at least as many to pull off the pomp, circumstance and ceremony surrounding Clinton's swearing-in Jan.20.
Add to the roster some 2,500 civilian planners on staff at Clinton's inaugural committee; 3,400 Capitol police, D.C. cops and National Guardsmen to keep order; 200 Park Service workers to look after the grass and clean up the sidewalks; 100 volunteer florists to spruce things up.
While ticket sales for parade seating and more than a dozen glitzy balls are meant to pay for the lion's share of the Jan. 18-20 festivities, this inaugural ``army'' still costs taxpayers plenty:
* $950,000 for the swearing-in ceremony, including construction of a platform on the Capitol steps and a congressional VIP luncheon.
* $400,000 to the Park Service and $600,000 to the Park Police.
* $5.7 million to the D.C. city government for being host to tens of thousands of revelers, including a special round of health-code inspections of the hotels and restaurants nearest the action.
* $4.7 million spent by the Defense Department to set up its Armed Forces Inaugural command center in a former Naval Intelligence building on a suburban Maryland federal campus.
There, Campbell is one of 517 military personnel, many of whom have been bent over planning schedules and street maps since May, well before they knew whether it would be Clinton or Republican Bob Dole taking the oath of office. By Inauguration Day - code named ``the morning of execution,'' when a half-dozen satellite command posts will mobilize at 4 a.m. around the nation's capital - the military personnel will number more than 800. That includes ceremonial color guards and military drivers for VIPs.
Another 1,200 service personnel will line Pennsylvania Avenue during the parade, with several hundred more marching.
Already, military officials from major generals to privates have spent endless hours simulating ``situations'' from their war room.
Last week, a young Marine drilled two dozen colleagues on various forms of PlanB.
Situation: Animal rights protesters intent on disruption damage horse trailers. Response: Move the loading site and dispatch new trailers.
Lt. Col. William Cardenas, as chief of ceremonies, must coordinate meals, transportation and lodging for the hundreds of troops making up the parade cordon and performing in the military bands and color guards.
One of the more minute - and last-minute - details will be whether the troops should don dress overcoats. If the weather is mild, Cardenas will have to find a safe spot to pile all those coats.
He is, so far, undaunted. ``We're used to doing this. It's pretty standard stuff,'' Cardenas shrugged.
He admitted to one fear: It's snowing hard Inauguration morning and there is a standoff among civilian planners. No one's willing to make the cancellation call. And all that precision planning hangs in limbo.
``They spend a lot of money and everybody wants a parade,'' Cardenas said sympathetically. ``We can go with any kind of weather. The problem isn't snow, it's indecision.''
LENGTH: Medium: 79 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP. Construction workers put together the presidentialby CNBviewing stand on Pennsylvania Avenue on Wednesday. color.