42nd CST Evaluates and Validates

Photo By Sgt. 1st Class Mary Junell | A Soldier with the 42nd Civil Support Team performs a decontamination routine at the Buncombe County Public Safety Training Facility near Asheville, during a training scenario on Sept. 25, 2014, The 42nd CST spent the day at the facility being evaluated by Army North. (U.S. Army National Guard Photo by Staff Sgt. Mary Junell / Released)  

ASHEVILLE, NC, UNITED STATES

09.25.2014

Story by Staff Sgt. Mary Junell  

North Carolina National Guard

ASHEVILLE, N.C. - The North Carolina National Guard’s 42nd Civil Support Team spent the day being evaluated at the Buncombe County Public Safety Training Facility near Asheville, North Carolina on Sept. 25, 2014.

The Greenville, North Carolina based team is evaluated by U.S. Army North once every 18 months to ensure they are capable of responding to Chemical, Biological, Radiological or Nuclear incidents (CBRN).

“We deploy in order to support the state or nation,” said Lt. Col William Moore, commander of the 42nd CST. "We respond to any type of CBRN incident.”

The team responded to a scenario where people had gotten ill at a conference and then a security guard found a backpack with wires coming out of it.

“All of the training missions that we do are as close to a real life incident as we can create. I think it builds their confidence 110%,” Moore said.

In addition to the Greenville team, firefighters from the Asheville Fire Department’s Hazardous Material Regional Response Team participated in the exercise.

“This is what we would do in the 20 counties in western North Carolina,” said Asheville Fire Department Lt. Mike Riley, a member of the HAZMAT team. “If this was a smaller scale incident or the same incident, we would come first. Any county in our response areas can request us to come if the incident exceeds their capabilities. We would do the same thing that’s going on here; survey the area, survey the building and set up de-con. If our capabilities were overwhelmed then we could request the 42nd CST.”

"Building up to this exercise in the last six weeks, we have done six full blown train up missions to ensure we were going to be ready for this evaluation,” Moore said.

The First Army evaluators strive to make the event different every time, like the addition of local emergency responders. The realistic training conducted here has validated the 42nd CST, ensuring that it is always ready for any emergency.

• Date Taken: 09.25.2014
• Date Posted: 10.01.2014 10:31
• Story ID: 143890
• Location: ASHEVILLE, NC, US