Photo By Ryan Campbell | Soldiers assigned to the New York National Guard's 24th Weapons of Mass Destruction...... read more read more
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BROOKLYN, N.Y. (Oct. 24, 2019) — Flashlights shine through stacked pallets of freight, looking towards dark offices long since empty. With only some sky light here and some fluorescent light there, you are more on the lookout for the powder and liquid that covers the floors.
Shipments stacked and waiting for transit, where they came from and where they are going do not matter in this moment. Covered with sweat inside the protective suit the air is fresh in clean, protecting from the rancid air around them.
Three people moving slow and deliberate, walking towards things that others would run from. Radiation and chemical agents are hiding somewhere behind a closed door or in a patch of darkness, but will be found.
Evaluators from the Department of Homeland Security planted items in the cavernous, empty warehouse for the Airmen and Soldiers to find during the exercise.
“Our job is basically to assess, assist and advise the civilian incident commander,” said Maj. Robert Freed, the deputy commander of the 24th Weapons of Mass Destruction Civil Support Team. “Whether that’s law enforcement, the FBI, could be fire department, basically our job is to bring in a high level of expertise and equipment and be able to provide some tools, techniques and procedures that civilians may not be able to.”
Despite being such a small team, they are present at what they call “national security events” which has included everything from the U.S. Open tennis championships and Major League Baseball playoffs, to the president being in the area and the U.N. General Assembly. Usually called a CST, the unit which is headquartered at Fort Hamilton, the Army's only base in New York City, was evaluated during the exercise in order to be certified to carry out their primary mission of finding and mitigating the risks of threats from chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear in nature. They can identify unknown materials for first responders and any agency that requests them.
“Pretty much everything within our area of responsibility which extends up to the Indian Point Nuclear Reactor, all the way east to Suffolk County,” said Freed of the area of responsibility.
Reed explained that the level of expertise the team members bring to each situation is extremely high, given the fact that they all go through two years of training once selected for the team. They work together with civilian agencies who often do not have their own team capable of responding to weapons of mass destruction, he continued.
“Most of those teams are not full time,” said Reed. “This is all we do.”
Within 90 minutes of being alerted for an incident, they can be on scene wherever they are needed at no cost to the requesting agency. The 24th CST is fully funded by the federal government and is available to anyone whether it’s a two person sheriff department or another federal agency, Reed explained.
In order to carry out this mission, they must be routinely certified every 18 months through these exercises. The New York National Guard has two CSTs who must go through this, with the 24th and the 2nd CST, which covers upstate New York and the northeast. Each state has at least one National Guard CST.
“They have to be able to identify any hazards they might come across, they have to look for things that may be a crime scene,” said Rick Martin, an evaluator from the U.S. Army North Civil Support Training Activity. “When they recognize those things, they have to know how to report them, if they find a substance they have to be able to take a sample, bring it out and process it.”
As the team conducts their search, three members go out with one searching for explosives, followed by another searching for chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear substances. Waiting behind is a mobile lab where they can process samples to identify what they are dealing with, or prepare it to be sent on to other labs for further examination.
“They have to do this as a team,” Martin emphasized. “They need all the different parts of the team to make this happen.”
Martin explained that waiting for the team in the warehouse were three radiological sources in the form of two different types of cobalt and one type of caesium, along with a simulated potassium sulfide blister agent lab. A second day of the exercise will take place on the 24th, where they will have a fourth substance to find as well as an opportunity to find anything they missed on the first day, Martin added.
“From where we stand right now, they’re being very deliberate,” said Martin. “That’s good, take your time and find what you need to find. In a real world situation this would take a couple days.”
To become part of the 24th CST is not easy, Reed explained. Each member has to apply and then go through a selection process before being sent out for the two years of training it takes to become individually certified.
“We’re here to help,” said Freed. “We’re a joint team, Army and Air Force and we live by our military values, and we’re there to help those civilian first responders.”
| Date Taken: | 10.24.2019 |
| Date Posted: | 10.24.2019 15:25 |
| Story ID: | 349102 |
| Location: | BROOKLYN, NY, US |
| Web Views: | 49 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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