Civil Support Teams Assist Interagency Partners in Emergency Response for 58th Presidential Inauguration

Photo By Sgt. Jennifer Amo | Sgt. Solomon Acevero, a survey team member for the District of Columbia National Guard 33rd Civil Support Team checks his equipment for indication of a hazard, in Washington D.C., Jan. 18, 2017. During the 58th Presidential Inauguration, the District of Columbia National Guard’s 33rd Civil Support Team supplemented by over 1200 Soldiers and Airmen from CSTs across the country, will support interagency teams throughout the District in Chemical Biological Radiological Nuclear Explosive situations. (National Guard photo by Sgt. Jennifer Amo, JTF-DC)  

WASHINGTON CITY, DC, UNITED STATES

01.19.2017

Story by Sgt. Jennifer Amo 

DC National Guard

Chemical Biological Radiological Nuclear Explosive requests encompass a large array of things from Hazmat with dangerous chemicals to CBRNE situations.

Approximately 26 National Guard CST teams from Maryland, West Virginia, New Hampshire, Delaware, North Dakota, New Jersey, Washington, Nevada, and Guam, augmented the main taskforce.

“CST teams actively working in joint interagency teams will respond to suspicious packages, anything they deem out of the ordinary during the presidential inauguration and will escalate the requests through different echelons of government for the response,” said Task Force CBRNE commander Maj. Drew Smith.

According to Smith, there is a Joint Hazard Assessment Team that will direct teams and the operation system will be connected to FBI Washington field office, D.C. Fire Operation Center and U.S. Capitol Police.

Different teams roving in the secured and unsecured areas of the city, decrease response time and increase speed.

“Speed is everything in our business and the quicker we can mitigate the incident the more lives we can save,” Smith said. “We bring in mass casualties decontamination units and medical triage units because if there is a release, we want to get them decontaminated quickly and they have a better likelihood to survive”.

CST teams can be deployed with different suits that range in usage from chemical reconnaissance to decontamination, said Staff Sgt. John Ewasko, a team leader in the Delaware National Guard’s 31st CST.

“Our involvement is extremely important because it helps the local responders in the area to quickly identify whether it’s an unattended backpack or bomb, which determines if it’s safe or an actual threat,” Ewasko said.

• Date Taken: 01.19.2017
• Date Posted: 01.25.2017 14:18
• Story ID: 220932
• Location: WASHINGTON CITY, DC, US