Army chemical specialists endure what most will not

Photo By Sgt. James Hale | Spc. James Patrick, an explosive ordnance disposal team member from B Company, 110th Chemical Battalion from Joint Base Lewis-McChord, transports a decontaminated chemical round from a storage facility during training at the U.S. Army’s Umatilla Chemical Depot, Ore., May 11. B Company was at Umatilla in support of 2nd Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear (CBRN) Battalion’s Defense CBRNE (Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear and high- yield Explosives) Response Force (DCRF). The 2nd CBRN’s part of the DCRF is made up of more than 800 soldiers in 16 supporting units from six different military installations across the country who can respond to any U.S. CBRNE incident to prevent the loss of American lives.  

UMATILLA, OR, UNITED STATES

05.11.2012

Story by Sgt. James Hale 

28th Public Affairs Detachment

UMATILLA, Ore. – It’s a beautiful, sunny, 68-degree day and you are going to be outside for 14 hours, so you put on a heavy coat, extra pants, rubber boots, rubber gloves and a black mask with a hood right? Well the soldiers of B Company, 110th CBRNE Battalion do to stay safe while protecting the U.S. from CBRNE hazards.

B Company is one of only two Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear and high-yield Explosives units capable of performing this type of mission and are an integral part of the 2nd CBRN Battalion’s Defense CBRNE Response Force (DCRF). The 2nd CBRN’s part of the DCRF is made up of more than 800 soldiers in 16 supporting units from six different military installations across the country who can respond to any U.S. CBRNE incident to prevent the loss of American civilians.

The soldiers of B Company wear this equipment to protect themselves from the hazards they may face when performing their missions. This training exercise sent them over 100 miles from Yakima Wash. to the U.S. Army’s Umatilla Chemical Depot, Ore., in response to a simulated chemical leak in four munitions storage facilities.

Once they arrived at the location, the soldiers immediately set up a personnel decontamination area enabling them to quickly respond to any contamination their equipment may not protect them from. While the site was being set up and evaluated, the entry team was busy preparing themselves by putting on their chemical equipment with help from their fellow soldiers.

Over the next 12 hours, the soldiers found simulated munitions with chemicals leaking from them, munitions with simulated improvised explosive devices under them and a simulated chemical lab; all needing to be decontaminated, packaged and safely transported away from the training site.

This task may sound simple but the process of removing one leaking round can take up to 45 minutes. It has to be washed with decontamination materials, sealed to prevent further leaks, placed into transportation packaging, retested to ensure it is properly sealed and then carried out to a separate part of the team for further testing before being loaded for transport.

“The importance of today’s training is the realistic aspect of it, especially in the chemical world,” said Staff Sgt. Daniel Totten, a sample team member with B Company. “Some people think these weapons don’t exist but they do, and seeing things like this firsthand, while deployed, make me take this training to heart even more.”

B Company differs from other Army units because its missions can be called in by civilian agencies here in the U.S. to clear state-side buildings with suspected hazardous chemicals, or use the training they practiced today to neutralize a weapons cache in theatre containing CBRNE munitions.

After loading all the munitions, the soldiers from B Company convoyed back to Yakima. They finished their mission by X-raying the munitions they transported to ensure they were no longer a threat. Before going to bed, they unloaded their equipment and prepared it to go out and perform all over again the next day in a different scenario.

• Date Taken: 05.11.2012
• Date Posted: 05.13.2012 18:34
• Story ID: 88374
• Location: UMATILLA, OR, US