Story, photos by Spc. Jeremy D. Crisp
MNCI-PAO
DECON
CAMP LIBERTY, Iraq -- Soldiers from the Army's 3rd Infantry Division conducted training May 30 at Camp Liberty using newly-fielded equipment meant to battle an old enemy.
Chemical specialists from 3rd ID's 36th Engineer Group, Fort Benning, Ga., and the Ohio Army National Guard's 612th Engineer Battalion teamed up for a day-long classroom and field training exercise using the Army's newest weapon in the fight against chemical and biological contamination -- the Falcon Fixed-Site Decontamination System.
The Falcon is a large-scale compressed air foam truck and trailer system capable of dispersing fire-suppression foam as well as biological and chemical warfare decontamination formulas.
The system is mounted on a trailer towed by a Ford F-350 pickup truck. Soldiers operate a floor-mounted nozzle from the bed of the truck and are capable of dispensing decontaminating spray up to six stories high.
Master Sgt. Kerrethel Avery, an 18-year veteran of the Army's chemical corps, said the Falcon is meant to go anywhere and cover various types of decontamination.
"The Falcon is able to do terrain, interior and exterior decontamination," Avery said. "We can even do insides of buildings up to six stories high, so if something was to happen inside a palace, we could decontaminate it."
Soldiers attending the training went through a morning classroom session that consisted of a slide show outlining the various parts and operating mechanisms of the Falcon. Preventive maintenance checks and services were a key part of the classroom instructions, as Soldiers were taught all aspects of properly caring for the system.
William Banks, Multi-National Corps-Iraq chemical operations instructor/contractor, said the Falcon has been fielded to various forward operating bases in Iraq since September 2004. He added that it offers more capabilities than the Army's outdated M12 Power-Driven Decontamination Apparatus.
"Basically what this system offers the chemical corps is uses as both a fire apparatus as well as decontamination," Banks said. "If you compare it to the M12, the Falcon holds 1000 gallons of solution, where the M12 holds 500 gallons."
Banks added that the Falcon is easier to use than the M12 because of its simplicity.
Following the morning classroom session was an afternoon field exercise where Soldiers were able to get hands-on training while the information they learned was still fresh in their minds.
"Usually we'll get a class on something and we'll wait a week or two to do it," said Sgt. Josh C. Dooley from Middletown, Ohio. "This time it was fresh in our minds when we went out and actually did it."
Dooley, a chemical operations noncommissioned officer with the 612th, had used the Falcon at Fort Leonard Wood, Mo., last year when it was still in the fielding process, and he was somewhat familiar with it going into the days training.
However, conducting the training in Iraq helped him become more comfortable using the equipment by having a tactical and more realistic situation to train with, he said.
The training culminated with two sets of three-man teams -- consisting of a driver, a "hose" man, and a controls operator on the ground -- putting the Falcon system to use.
The Soldiers, donning their chemical protective clothing and masks, were tasked to decontaminate a 200-meter path to a pair of hypothetically contaminated trucks.
Swathing a route to their respective vehicles, each team -- amidst a generous spray of white foam -- hosed down the outside, tops and undercarriage of the camouflaged trucks before opening the doors and decontaminating the inside.
After decontamination was complete, the Soldiers went back to the classroom to conduct an after-action review to determine the positive aspects of the training. The chemical troops also identified areas they might need work on.
"This is a blessing to the future of the military," Avery said. "There are a lot of new things coming out for everybody to play with, and this is one of them. I look forward to doing more training with it and using it if need be."
| Date Taken: | 06.06.2005 |
| Date Posted: | 06.06.2005 07:07 |
| Story ID: | 1995 |
| Location: | BAGHDAD, IQ |
| Web Views: | 119 |
| Downloads: | 9 |
This work, Chemical Soldiers train on new equipment in Iraq, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
