Soldier Spotlight: Capt. Alexsandr Efros, Nuclear Medical Science Officer

HAYWARD, CA, UNITED STATES

08.10.2016

Story by Lauren Hall 

California National Guard Primary   

Capt. Alexsandr Efros serves in the California National Guard as a Nuclear Medical Science Officer assigned to the 95th Civil Support Team (Weapons of Mass Destruction.)

Efros, originally from the Soviet Union, came to the United States with his family as refugees in 1991 when he was a 15-year-old high school student.

“I wasn’t the best student in high school. I was bored and couldn’t find my calling,” he said.

But his outlook changed one afternoon when he was called into the counselor’s office for a counseling session.

“I was in the counselor’s office getting ready to be chewed out, and there happened to be an Army recruiter there and he said the right things to me. What he said to me fired me up and gave me a goal, and that was to join the Army,” said Efros. “I’d never thought about military service before then, but what the recruiter said put me on the right track.”

What did the recruiter say that would forever change Efros’ life?

“He said that I couldn’t join the military if I didn’t graduate, so I had to keep studying in order to graduate,” said Efros.

Efros graduated on schedule and served six years in the active duty Army as a combat medic and medical lab technician. He then joined the California National Guard as a Russian linguist and interrogator while attending college classes full time. He was commissioned in the California National Guard after earning two Bachelor’s degrees in Biology and Laboratory Science.

Efros’ military specialty is environmental science and engineering officer, the preferred military occupation series to fill his current duty position as a Nuclear Medical Science Officer responsible for running the Analytical Laboratory System (ALS), a mobile science lab.

“I’m an analytical specialist that runs a mobile science laboratory on the civil support team. In case of a weapons of mass destruction or hazardous material incident or a national disaster, the team identifies a substance and provides consequence management recommendations to the incident commander,” he explained. “We work in domestic operations. Our job is to assist local first responders, police and a variety of federal agencies with on-site field confirmatory analysis to determine any potential chemical, biological or radiological threats.”

When he’s not busy identifying threats or providing analytical support for a variety of security missions, or bringing the ALS to community events such as the Sacramento State Fair, Capt. Efros has an even bigger mission at home: enjoying family time with his wife and two children.

• Date Taken: 08.10.2016
• Date Posted: 08.12.2016 14:19
• Story ID: 206950
• Location: HAYWARD, CA, US