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Guard team ready for ‘lots of action’
05/01/2008
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| The team itself was stood up in 2000 and was in the news in early 2007 when it was deployed to the Super Bowl, played in Miami that year, and in early 2005 when it first was deployed to a Super Bowl, played in Jacksonville that year. They were also at the Daytona 500. ‘There were 33 alarms there,’ but all were negative, Lt. Col. Russ Spengler said. |
Even before it went to Fort Leonard Wood, Mo., in December 2001 to be certified as one of the National Guard’s first weapons of mass destruction civil support team, soldiers in Florida’s 44th Civil Support Team (CST) were in Palm Beach County supporting law enforcement officials there following an anthrax attack that left one employee dead at a supermarket tabloid’s office.
“We’ve got lots of action in Florida,” Lt. Col. Russ Spengler, the team’s commander, said.
Capt. John Wilson, who began his career in the explosive ordnance demolition company at Camp Blanding, said, “We were helping the whole alphabet soup” of agencies “in determining the extent of contamination.”
Twelve members of the team were on the American Media site. Equipped with biological agent field detection kits, they responded to sever suspicious incidents. All the results were negative.
The team itself was stood up in 2000 and was in the news in early 2007 when it was deployed to the Super Bowl, played in Miami that year, and in early 2005 when it first was deployed to a Super Bowl, played in Jacksonville that year. They were also at the Daytona 500. “There were 33 alarms there,” but all were negative, Spengler said.
In December, the 22-member team responded to a possible chemical contamination at a cruise terminal in Jacksonville. The exercise was part of the evaluation every team must go through every 18 months.
The scenario for this exercise involved a parked vehicle located in the back of the parking lot of the terminal. It was discovered to have held several bottles of chemicals.
“This was an ideal type of scenario,” said Spengler, referencing the choice of a cruise terminal for the exercise.
Once the team is activated, it goes through a first-response phase with fire rescue and law enforcement personnel. Then the team sets up the equipment, and designated members put on their protective gear.
After meticulous preparation, team members set out to detect any unidentified chemical, biological or radiological substances that may have been placed within what they call the “Red Zone,” or the area affected by the threat.
Like the last evaluation, which took place at ALLTEL Stadium (now Jacksonville Memorial Stadium) 18 months ago, the site choice is critical to evoke realism.
During the entire process, an evaluating team from the U.S. Fifth Army observed the CST members to ensure they completed all their designated tasks in order and on time.
“Once the main team arrives on site, they have 90 minutes to set up their decontamination stations and report to me [the incident commander] for the approval to approach the vehicle that has been contaminated,” Donald Jones, the exercise “incident” commander and one of the evaluators for the exercise, said.
Adding, “There are about 12 task standards that each CST is evaluated on and of those 12 standards, there are about 500 steps and tasks attached to standards. The process is very exact and meticulous, as it should be.”
Once notified, it takes about 12 to 18 hours to complete an evaluation before its results are forwarded on.
“We get the results the next day,” Spengler, who began his career as an infantry officer and then in acquisition, said.
Adding, “The Fifth Army is very good and detailed in watching what we do. When the exercise concludes, they compare notes, write a plan, and we then brief the Florida National Guard command staff the next day.”
For this evaluation, the CST not only met the standard passing score of 90 percent or better, but they scored a 100 percent, making for a perfect score.
“Every time the team performs outstanding,” Spengler said to the Florida National Guard News Service. “The people in our team are committed to what they do because that’s what our team is all about: to support first responders in the event of a terrorist attack.”
Spengler told AUSA NEWS, “We’re constantly out there training, tying in with local first responders from Key West to Pensacola. Familiarity breeds trust,” necessary when responding to a possible weapons of mass destruction report on a ship 10 miles off Jacksonville’s shoreline.
“There is no NTC, JRTC equivalent” for training in this area. “Probably the best solution is a regional approach. You can’t just train the military units” in what to do. It involves dozens of other local, state and federal officials. “It’s not a question of radio fixes.”
Adding,“Training as teams, you don’t see a lot of that with civilian” agencies. “You’ve got to know how to train it, how to sustain it when they are facing a massive event – planes crashing into buildings, hurricanes.”
Spengler said, “You want to retain that expertise” in explaining why so many members of the team have been with the team from its earliest days.
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