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Testing,
Testing, CST
Spc. William E. Henry, Indiana
Army National Guard
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Staff Sgt. Mark
Zollman, logistics noncommissioned officer for the Indiana
National Guard 53rd Civil Support Team, sets up an
Automatic Chemical Agent Detector Alarm
during an exercise with the Auburn
local first responders, March 6. The 53rd CST does
consistent training to ensure readiness in the event of a
nuclear, biological or chemical situation. Photo by Spc.
William E. Henry, Indiana National Guard.
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Chemical, biological and nuclear weapons are a clear threat anywhere
in the United States,
but for the servicemembers of the Indiana National Guard’s 53rd
Civil Support Team, it’s protecting citizens that fuel the passion
for their detailed work.
At an exercise held in
Auburn,
Ind.,
March 6, 53rd CST members showed their stuff, with the cooperation
of the Auburn Fire Department.
The scenario: An early
morning fire triggered an alarm at a vacant foundry building in
Auburn.
The Auburn Fire Department firemen located the small blaze and
extinguished it with minimal difficulty. Upon investigating the
source of the fire and the area of the building, the firemen came
upon what seemed to be a makeshift lab in a centralized location of
the building.
At that time, two men of
foreign descent were apprehended in the building. The men had
workers’ visas, but they were expired. One of the men was showing
signs of sickness and was taken to the hospital. The other man was
taken into police custody.
The fire department had
minimal resources to deal with the situation, and to avoid injury or
contamination of workers they called upon the 53rd CST to help deal
with the situation inside the building.
First responders and
Soldiers had agreed if incidents like this occurred, the civilian
and the military portions of the spectrum have to mesh together and
protect individuals from possible threats.
“In any situation,
especially in emergency services, any time we can train together,
it’s going to make it that much easier for us to work together
because we know each other and we know how we each operate, and it’s
going to make that emergency or that situation run that much
smoother,” said Mike Good, deputy chief for the Auburn Fire Departme
“The integration is
absolutely key and essential, especially on the training site. It is
far better that we train with first responders and each of us have a
mutual understanding of how we operate down range, how we talk to
each other, code words we use, safety procedures that we use,” said
Maj. Bill Stroup, commander of the 53rd CST.
During an emergency
situation, an incident commander is chosen, usually the most senior
person from the civilian emergency responders. The Incident
Commander has control of all the sectors and he appoints others to
take control of other aspects of the operation, according to the
National Incident Management System procedures.
“When we come here we’re
not working for someone in the military chain of command, we’re
working for that civilian incident commander,” added Stroup.
NIMS is regulated under
the Department of Homeland Security.
The equipment that the
53rd CST uses makes a big difference, concurred Sgt. Christopher
Wray, CST Survey Team member.
“We have a lot more
equipment than a normal fire department would have.”
The CST uses many devices
to help detect any chemicals in the air, radiation, wind speed,
levels of oxygen or other gases and even liquids.
Wray had explained many devices ranging from an
Improvised Chemical Air Monitor to the digital camera they use when
collecting evidence inside an area.
“We’ll be talking on the
radio, ‘Hey we see a powder, we see a liquid,’ maybe any labels that
we might be looking for,” said Wray
Samples taken from the
areas of concern will get taken back to an analytical suite where
the group is centralized. The samples will then be tested by the
53rd CST.
“They bring in a lot more
resources than what we have. Like the capabilities of doing things
on site where we would have to take samples and send them to a lab
somewhere they can do all that stuff on site,” said Doug Cox,
firefighter for the AFD.
Wray stressed that the
53rd CST isn’t the final say, but they can detect what the substance
is on site and will send another portion of the same sample to an
outside professional lab to get a second opinion.
“What really helps, is the
firemen understanding they have this resource. We come out when a
local agency doesn’t have the equipment or training to deal with
this type of situation. It’s really helpful for them to see what
they have in their hands in case we do ever have to come out,” said
Sgt. Thomas Vorn, CST Survey Team member.
The 53rd CST is a
full-time unit standing ready, regardless of time, day or weather
with 17 Soldiers and 3 Airmen, prepared for action at any moment.
Soon the team will welcome two new additions, totaling this elite
unit to 22 strong.
“Everything that we do on
a day to day basis is out there on the front lines to protect
Hoosiers that are here in this community like Auburn, or neighboring
communities around Indianapolis or even out of state. We’re not
mobilized like other units, maybe for going over to Iraq or
Afghanistan or doing a peacekeeping mission somewhere else in the
world but we are an integral part of homeland defense and we do
something every day and are always there 24 hours a day, seven days
a week to respond.”
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