CHEYENNE, Wyo. - Life is full of these things called “best kept secrets.” The things in life that are extremely enjoyable or rewarding, but you have to know how to find them. One such secret is the military Civil Support Teams which are spread across the country.
Cheyenne is home to the 84th CST, whose mission is to support civil authorities in a plethora of incident responses, to include chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear, as well as natural disasters. They help the state or nation in times of disaster when local authorities don’t have the knowledge base or resources to respond to the situation at hand.
As I sat down to talk to Sgt. 1st Class Trevor Cotton, he told me that he initially joined the Wyoming Army National Guard in 1998 with his best friend as he hoped their enlistments would serve as a lasting bond, or pact, in their friendship.
“I think the two of us were probably the easiest enlistments of the year,” said Cotton as he reminisced about the day he took his oath. He was a senior at Hot Springs County High School in Thermopolis, and he longed for some type of challenge in life, and thought serving his country would fulfill that criteria. He couldn’t have forecasted then that his decision to enlist that day would be one of the best decisions of his life.
Cotton, who holds four different military occupational specialties, started his military career as a towed artilleryman, then served an active duty stint with the military police, and proceeded to sign on as a global war on terrorism recruiting and retention noncommissioned officer. He then volunteered to mobilize in 2005 for Operation Iraqi Freedom, and when returning home, he was re-trained as a multiple launch rocket systems operator.
It was in late 2007 when Cotton seized the opportunity to become a member of the 84th CST as a survey team member. After serving in this capacity, he was selected as the Wyoming Army National Guard NCO of the year in 2010. Shortly thereafter, he applied for the medical NCO position at the 84th CST, the position which he currently holds.
In order to hold a position in the CST, a member must first go to eight weeks of basic military training, followed by the civil support skills course. At that point, the laundry list of training begins, and includes, but is not limited to: chemical/biological warfare agent and illicit labs course, confined space and high angle rope rescue course, advanced trauma course, advanced burn life support course, field identification of biological warfare agents, basic microscopy, applied radiation response training and advanced and applied sciences. The average training to qualify a CST member is 18-24 months and around 1,800 hours. This does not include the additional professional military education or annual refresher training.
The training can seem exhausting and never ending.
“The training is not for the weak of heart, but it encourages a love of learning,” said Cotton, who loves the training facet of his job.
Cotton also values the unique experiences his job has provided him.
“I’ve seen inside nuclear reactors on field trips, been in the live nerve agent training center, rotated through a metropolis emergency department, trained with detection robots and traveled most of the country seeing things that most people never will.” He also says that throughout his numerous responses during his almost 8-year career in the CST, there has never been the same situation or mission twice, which always makes it fun because his job is constantly changing and evolving, while also remaining challenging.
Another bonus to the unparalleled training and experiences is the opportunity to work side-by-side with civilian counterparts while helping the state and nation.
“Once I got on the team, the driving factor that kept me going was easy, that this is my state, this is where I serve and this is where my family calls home. With this job I have a good chance of helping any community in my state when they need it.”
However, it’s not fun and games all the time as the job does require sacrifice. At any point, day or night, the team might get called out by state or county officials to assist with an incident response.
“When they call for assistance in the middle of the night, we start rolling. We have a high operational tempo with a constant mission and are always traveling and training. However, we possess multiple skills that are in excess to civilian equivalencies and it’s awesome to roll onto a scene in the middle of the night and see how happy the local incident commander is to see us arrive – no one else does what we do in as many different disciplines.”
As Cotton finished regarding his job as a CST member and prepared to go back to work cleaning small pieces of equipment that he trained months on to learn to us, he added one more thought.
“You know, there are only 58 other people in the whole world that have my job description?”
He left it at that, because honestly, nothing more needed to be said.
| Date Taken: | 07.06.2015 |
| Date Posted: | 07.06.2015 18:14 |
| Story ID: | 169190 |
| Location: | CHEYENNE, WY, US |
| Web Views: | 726 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, What it takes to be a Civil Support Team member in the Guard, by 1st Lt. Megan Hoffmann, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
LEAVE A COMMENT