CHEYENNE, Wyo. – They accept varying work schedules, being on-call 24-7, 365, and committing several hours to several days to the scene of an incident - their mission necessitates they do so.
Members of the Cheyenne based 84th Civil Support team have the mission of supporting civil authorities at incident sites, operating throughout the entire cowboy state and in CST sector 6, which includes Washington, Oregon, Montana, Idaho, North Dakota, South Dakota and Nebraska. The team is a conglomeration of Army and Air Force personnel that have formed a very close relationship with the Wyoming Office of Homeland Security and local and state emergency management officials.
“Their ability to respond quickly and work with local first responders is phenomenal,” said Rob Cleveland, who has been the director of emergency management for Cheyenne and Laramie County for the past 15 years. “They possess the ability to supplement local first responders through the use of critical equipment and their extensive knowledge base. They also work very well with the local populous and the relationship that the community and local first responders have with them is a pretty special one.”
The team, which responds to chemical, biological, and nuclear incidents, as well as natural and man-made disasters, are largely self-sufficient at what they do. At any given time, the team consists of around 22 full-time Active Duty Guard personnel who possess more than 15 different military specialties. They are required to deploy a functional response force within three hours of being called upon, and it can take each team-member 24 months to be fully trained for a position on the team, averaging 1,800 hours of job training.
“Theoretically we can respond to any incident in all 50 states and territories. If something bad happens, a local responder will call in a request, typically to the Wyoming Office of Homeland Security, and from there several follow-on phone calls run through the proper channels and the response is staffed,” said the 84th CST’s commander, Lt. Col. Christopher Troesh.
Not only does the CST cover widespread territory in their incident responses, but their list of qualifications is extensive.
“We are constantly, training, maintaining and responding,” said Sgt. First Class Trevor Cotton, medical noncommissioned officer for the 84th CST. It’s what we do. “The very technical, specified training we receive is phenomenal.”
In 2014, the 84th CST - in the least populated state - led the nation in total responses with 11. In fact, over the last three years, the 84th CST has been at, or near the top of, the national rankings in responses each year. They are able to operate in contaminated environments, perform mobile laboratory analysis and provide robust communications capabilities, as well as a plethora of other capabilities.
Last year, their responses varied from dealing with natural disasters and suspicious packages, to environmental crimes and chemical detection. They worked several flood responses in Carbon and Albany counties as well as the Big Horn Basin. Just recently the team responded to flooding in Niobrara County in June, primarily in Lusk, and assisted with a swift water rescue for a stranded motorist.
During those responses, they provided communications and reconnaissance, proactive flood planning aimed at predicting flooding potential, and actual flood response efforts where they gauged the impact and severity of flooding and advised county and state officials on the best course of action.
The team also responded to potential environmental crimes last year as they worked alongside the Wyoming Department of Agriculture to investigate a case where unknown substances were killing trees in Jackson, Wyoming. The team was tasked with determining what was causing the trees to die and how to prevent further damage in the area. The team determined what chemicals were present and traced them back to a civilian who was killing trees for a better view around their property. The findings in this instance mitigated any further damage to vegetation in the area.
The team also responded to chemical spills on Wyoming highways and interstates as well as assisting the county coroner’s office in Gillette in identifying the presence of possible chemicals utilized in a suicide.
“When we got the call about the chemical suicide, it was a blizzard and it took us three days to get on site,” said Sgt. First Class Trevor Cotton, medical noncommissioned officer with the 84th CST. “When we finally got to the scene, it was 25 degrees below zero outside, but the local responders were extremely happy to see us arrive.”
After running lab analysis, the CST was able to detect the chemicals present in the suicide, which provided essential information for the follow-on investigation and ensured to coroner would not be exposed to lethal chemicals when performing his job.
“Not every response we deal with is life or death. However, certain responses could be fairly serious or even catastrophic if dealt with improperly. We always take our job extremely seriously, regardless of the specifics of each incident,” said Troesh.
The relationship the CST has formed with local officials is rarely seen, as it is very strong with the WOHS and Laramie County EMS.
“The cool thing about Wyoming is that the entire state and WOHS have fully embraced the Wyoming Military Department and CST. We are integrated extremely well and have a great partnership. We feel extremely fortunate to have this kind of relationship.”
“This is the coolest gig in the guard,” Troesh added. “We get to travel all over the state, we do a lot of cool training, and most of all, we are always out helping in the community, which is what really matters.”
| Date Taken: | 07.06.2015 |
| Date Posted: | 07.06.2015 17:38 |
| Story ID: | 169180 |
| Location: | CHEYENNE, WY, US |
| Web Views: | 100 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Local Civil Support Team trumps nation in incident responses, by Capt. Megan Hoffmann, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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