Photo By Sgt. 1st Class Angel Martinez-Navedo | A lab technician from the 1st Area Medical Laboratory prepares a “chemical sample”...... read more read more
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FORT DIX, N.J. – Soldiers from the 1st Area Medical Laboratory, the only deployable lab in the Army, went through their Certification Training Exercise at Training Area 31 in Fort Dix, New Jersey from 12-23 Sept.
As a yearly requirement, this subordinate unit from the 20th CBRNE Command (Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear, Explosives) goes through a field training exercise, or FTX, to certify they are tactically and technically mission-ready in case they are needed at any part of the world. Just like they were for an Ebola virus outbreak in West Africa not too long ago.
During the FTX, they bring their entire medical lab to the field with its inherent capabilities to test them in a field environment.
“Being out in the field brings unknowns and really tests our capabilities,” said Col. Laura Elliot, 1st AML commander. “That way we’ll be able to do the same level of clinical and analytical work in a field environment as what we do in garrison.”
The Aberdeen Proving Ground-based unit has three major sections, Alpha, which is Occupational and Environmental Health Team, which is more like a preventive medicine unit but with a radioisotope detection component; Bravo, the Biological Lab, which tests for endemic diseases and biological warfare agents, and Charlie, the Chemical Lab, which tests for toxic industrial chemicals and chemical warfare agents.
For a more realistic feel to the training, they brought a sampling team from the 22nd Chemical Battalion, 46th Chemical Company, also out of APG, to collect samples from the “affected area” and bring them to their labs.
“Notionally a sampling team would not be working this close to an AML, but we get great training value,” said Elliot. “It gives our scientists the opportunity to learn the TTPs (tactics, technics, and procedures) of the sampling team, and it gives the sampling team feedback on what a scientist specifically may be looking for. I owe their leadership a huge ‘thank you’ for being able to bring that training benefit, which was invaluable to us,” she added.
During the FTX, Soldiers received a visit from Brig Gen. William E. King IV and Command Sgt. Maj. Kenneth Graham, commander and command sergeant major of the 20th CBRNE, and they both seemed to be impressed with the unit. Impressed to a point that the sergeant major put on a lab coat and started practicing with their chemical lab equipment. Graham said he felt like an “old dog learning a new tricks,” but it made him appreciate more what they do.
“I came away with an appreciation for what these Soldiers-scientists do, dressed out in SCBA (self-contained breathing apparatus) and operating continuously over several hours while standing up with their hands in a box,” expressed Graham.
To keep adding to the 1st AML’s distinctiveness, it has within their ranks specialists from the Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID), the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (WRAIR) and the US Army Medical Research Institute of Chemical Defense (USAMRICD).
"The 1st AML is more than a one of a kind unit with a unique mission,” added Graham. “It is a unit with high standards, disciplined Soldiers, and great leaders who are willing to roll up their sleeves, literally, to help the unit get after its mission.”
The overall mission of the 1st Area Medical Laboratory is to deploy world-wide as a unit or by task-organized teams to perform surveillance, confirmatory analytical laboratory testing and health hazard assessments of environmental, occupational, endemic and CBRNE threats in support of force protection and counter-weapons of mass destruction missions.
| Date Taken: | 09.23.2016 |
| Date Posted: | 09.26.2016 19:03 |
| Story ID: | 210658 |
| Location: | FORT DIX, NJ, US |
| Hometown: | ABERDEEN PROVING GROUND, MD, US |
| Web Views: | 359 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
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