First Results of The BATSE/COMPTEL/NMSU Rapid Burst Response Campaign

  R.M. Kippen, A. Connors, J. Macri, M. McConnell, J. Ryan (UNH)
   W. Collmar, J. Greiner, V. Sch\"onfelder, M. Varendorff (MPE)
                        C. Meegan (MSFC)
               B. McNamara, T. Harrison (NMSU)
              W. Hermsen, L. Kuiper (SRON-Leiden)
       L. Hanlon, O.R. Williams, C. Winkler (SSD/ESA)


The Imaging Compton Telescope (COMPTEL) onboard the {\sl Compton Gamma
Ray Observatory} regularly observes gamma-ray bursts which occur inside
the instrument's $\sim$1 sr field-of-view.  COMPTEL images bursts in the
0.75-30 MeV energy range with a typical location accuracy of 1-3 degrees, 
depending on burst strength, duration and spectrum.  COMPTEL's imaging 
capability has been exploited in order to search for fading gamma-ray 
burst counterparts at other wavelengths through the establishment of a 
BATSE/COMPTEL/NMSU rapid burst response campaign. This campaign utilizes near 
real-time triggering and preliminary burst location by BATSE, accelerated 
COMPTEL imaging, and a world-wide network of observers to search COMPTEL
error ``boxes'' as quickly as possible.  Timely, deep searches for lingering
counterpart emission of several bursts per year are the realized goal of
this campaign.  During its first year of operation, the rapid response 
program has been successfully applied to two strong bursts: GRB 930131 and 
GRB 930309.  These bursts were imaged in record time only hours after their 
initial detection by BATSE.  Subsequently, several observations were made 
at radio and optical observatories world-wide.  


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