Photo By Sgt. Lori Bilyou | Air Force Capt. Ty Clark, operations officer with the 10th Civil Support Team from...... read more read more
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HONOLULU - In the truck, the radio crackles to life. Air Force Maj. Scott Humphrey, deputy commander of the 10th Civil Support Team from Washington state reaches out to answer as Air Force Master Sgt. Jay Byram, operations non-commissioned officer in charge of the 10th CST, steers their vehicle closer to the scene of a potential disaster.
Trained to respond to weapons of mass destruction threats, the 10th CST is a mobile response unit that brings expertise and assistance to the first responders of any chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear or explosive emergency.
“We respond to WMD attacks and assist in preplanned events and some natural disasters like Katrina and the space shuttle disaster,” said Humphrey.
Preplanned events, otherwise known as training missions, are critical to ensuring smooth coordination between CSTs, comprised of Army and Air National Guard members, and the federal, state and local agencies that would potentially respond in the event of a disaster.
This time, the 10th CST is participating in Kai Malu O Hawaii, an interagency maritime field training exercise, staged in and around the Honolulu harbor, along with CSTs from six other states, the FBI and numerous other agencies.
With so many agencies working in the same area on the same problem, there are bound to be problems. Training events like Kai Malu O Hawaii give the participating agencies the opportunity to work together to overcome the difficulties that arise.
“In any exercise, coordination and communication between agencies are frequent problems,” said Honolulu Fire Department, battalion fire chief Scott Lawton. “So the opportunity to work together, whether it’s face to face, or trying to link up our radios, it’s great to do that.”
On a day-to-day basis, each agency is used to working and training independently. Working alongside members of other agencies can be a challenging task.
Training like this helps us in a couple different ways, said Air Force Tech. Sgt. Kevin McAbee, survey team chief for the 10th CST. We get to work with some of the first responders that we normally don’t get daily training with. Almost all of our training is with our own unit.
“For us, you know, any time we get an opportunity to do something like this and augment our team to meet something that fire or any sort of civil responders are lacking, that’s good,” said Army Spc. Aaron McOwen, survey team member with the 10th CST.
Exercises like this are a good way for us to learn how to break our team down and only give the first responders the pieces that they need, said McOwen.
When called to the scene of a WMD incident, CST teams do not roll in and take over, so coordination is key.
Our CST decontamination guys aren’t setting up a complete decontamination line, said McOwen. Instead they are fortifying the line that the Honolulu Fire Department already has here.
“This is another good way that we can really find out what our limitations and our capabilities are,” said McAbee, “and what we need to change if we were ever to roll on a scene like this again.”
Although training for the possibility of a WMD attack is essential, the job of responding to a real attack is one CSTs hope to never do.
“You want me well trained and bored out of my mind,” said Humphrey, “because a real event means somebody got through.”
| Date Taken: | 04.24.2012 |
| Date Posted: | 04.27.2012 18:09 |
| Story ID: | 87493 |
| Location: | HONOLULU, HI, US |
| Web Views: | 131 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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