Chemical company exceeds commander expectation

211th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment
Story by Sgt. Stephanie Briscoe

Date: 06.07.2011
Posted: 06.08.2011 00:27
News ID: 71724
Chemical company exceeds commander expectNation

FORT MCCOY, Wis.—Young motivated soldiers of the 388th Chemical Company, 472nd Chemical Battalion, accepted a challenge from their company commander here, June 7.

“The challenge for these young Soldiers is to set up a decontamination site without using water from organic sources,” said 1st Lt. Mark Soper, of Junction City, Wis., and commander of the 388th Chem. Company, 472nd Chem. Bn. “I designed this particular exercise to challenge my noncommissioned officers and Soldiers of the company to adapt and overcome unfamiliar obstacles,” he continued.

After arriving at the site, Sgt. Joseph Cordova of Tomahawk, Wis., and platoon sergeant of the 388th Chem. Company 472nd Chem. Bn. assessed the area for an adequate water source, good drainage, and accessibility by vehicles and equipment before dividing the platoon into three teams. He had one team to build a detailed equipment decontamination area and another team to build a detailed troop decontamination area while other troops were setting up Gallons Per Minute Pumps to drain some water from a nearby pond to use for the decontamination process.

“The DED area that we setup will be used to decontaminate all of our wheeled and track vehicles whereas the DTD area will be used to decontaminate troops and their personal equipment,” said Cordova. “Although we have lots of young soldiers in this company we managed to exceed the standards,” he added.

The commander gave the decontamination team only two hours to build the site. Although it posed many challenges, the young excited soldiers managed to build the decontamination site within the time allotted.

“I was very excited about using this special equipment and building a decontamination site,” said Spc. Zachery Jenning, a native of Sheboygan, Wis., and decontamination team member of the 388th Chem. Company, 472nd Chem. Bn. “This kind of training is a great start for me, it will aid me in my future goals,” he added.

Good soldiers are not born to do great things; they are trained to be do great things in challenging exercises such as Red Dragon.