Falcons jump into Fort Leonard Wood, conduct chemical training

Photo By Sgt. 1st Class Eliverto Larios | Capt. Maria Frishman, Commander of Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 37th Brigade Engineer Battalion, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne photographs findings in a simulated chemical weapons production site at the Chemical Defense Training Facility on Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri Feb. 25, 2015. The operation, named Steel Box 2, enhanced the Brigade’s chemical and biological weapons entry team’s proficiency in mission planning, preparation, and execution and is designed to ensure confidence in their assigned CBRN equipment. (82nd Airborne Division photo by Sgt. Eliverto V. Larios/Released)  

FORT LEONARD WOOD, MO, UNITED STATES

03.03.2015

Story by Sgt. Eliverto Larios 

82nd Airborne Division Public Affairs Office

FORT LEONARD WOOD, Mo. -- Dressed in the joint service lightweight integrated suit technology, paratroopers from the 2nd Battalion, 325th Airborne Infantry Regiment and the 37th Brigade Engineer Battalion, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, waited nervously. In a few minutes, they would come face to face with the real deal: live chemical agents; deadly chemical agents.

Last week, paratroopers from the brigade along with 1st Brigade Combat Team, conducted Operation Steel Box 2, a live chemical agent training scenario at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri. The annual training event picked up where last year’s Operation Steel Box with 3rd Brigade Combat Team left off, allowing Falcon paratroopers an opportunity to obtain the utmost confidence in their assigned chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear equipment, while simultaneously challenging the brigade’s chemical and biological weapons entry team’s ability to execute specialized missions as part of the Global Response Force.

The exercise began with an airborne operation into Fort Leonard Wood Feb. 23 with a follow on mission to find a notional weapons cache reported on the drop zone. The next day, the paratroopers searched a chemical manufacturing warehouse at the Incident Response Training Department. The IRTD provided the paratroopers with a more realistic environment than training facilities found on Fort Bragg.

“The facilities are geared for that type of training,” said Dan Arden, director of the IRTD. “The training objective is to get more reality out of it instead of them just walking through a glass house.”

The IRTD training provided an opportunity for both infantrymen and the brigade’s chemical reconnaissance platoon to work together in a challenging and realistic chemical environment.

“We were able to conduct the brigade’s chemical and biological weapons battle drill in a dry agent environment,” said Capt. Maria Frishman, commander of Headquarters and Headquarters Company for the BEB. “The reconnaissance element goes into a building, confirming and denying the presence of chemical or biological weapons with the maneuver element commanding and controlling all of it, providing security and entry into the building.”

Apart from providing a more realistic training environment, the facility also exposes the paratroopers to chemical hardware and facilities typical of what might be encountered on a GRF deployment, said Arden.

On the final day, the paratroopers’ skills were put to the ultimate test at the Chemical Defense Training Facility, where they trained in the presence of live VX, a nerve agent that is both odorless and tasteless. Exposure to the nerve agent can be deadly within minutes after contacting exposed skin. One drop can be fatal.

Surrounding a Humvee located in a small bay, the White Falcon paratroopers watched closely as faculty members walked around the vehicle, placing small drops of the live agent at different locations. The Paratroopers examined the live agent and were taught how to confirm the presence of a CBRN hazard, identify and classify the threat accordingly and decontaminate exposed personnel, areas and equipment.

In another bay, the brigade’s CBRN and an explosive ordnance disposal team from the 192nd Ordnance Battalion search a notional warehouse containing live chemical weapons. They photograph their finds and secure a leaking artillery round.
The skill gained during the training is something that Frishman hopes she will be able to take back to Bragg and utilize with other units.

“The knowledge that we gain here can definitely be worked on at Fort Bragg with any maneuver element,” said Frishman. “We are going to codify this with a brigade standard operating procedure, hopefully with the tactics, techniques and procedures that we’ve developed and learned here so that any company in the brigade can take this SOP and jump into this mission with reconnaissance teams with minimal planning and minimal rehearsal.”

As 2nd BCT continues to serve as the nucleus of the GRF, they continue to seek tough, realistic training opportunities to help prepare them for any contingency involving a chemical or biological threat. The Falcons leave Fort Leonard Wood having got what they came for, and remain trained and ready to jump, fight and win, anywhere in the world.

• Date Taken: 03.03.2015
• Date Posted: 03.03.2015 16:18
• Story ID: 155824
• Location: FORT LEONARD WOOD, MO, US