The Clean Team: Timberwolves team takes on the COVID-19 decontamination effort

Photo By Staff Sgt. Amanda Fry | U.S. Soldiers assigned to the Timberwolf Team at JMRC conduct COVID-19 decontamination cleaning at the Hohenfels Training Area. Clean teams are part of JMRC’s ongoing effort to mitigate the risk of COVID-19 for soldiers and personnel at the training areas. (US Army photo by Sgt. Amanda Fry)  

HOHENFELS, BY, GERMANY

10.30.2020

Courtesy Story

Joint Multinational Readiness Center

HOHENFELS, Germany - It is a dirty job, but someone has to do it.

Amid the influx of multinational and U.S. soldiers arriving at the Joint Multinational Readiness Center for exercises, the behind-the-scenes of keeping quarters clean and uncontaminated during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic is an ongoing mission for JMRC.

Observer Coach/Trainer (OC/T) teams take turns taking on this extra duty. Currently, the task is being completed by the Timberwolves OC/T team at JMRC.

Master Sgt. Robert Carter is currently organizing the crew that travels throughout the Hohenfels Training Area, as well as military buildings located in Garmisch, to ensure safety and mitigate the spread of the virus on base.

“Our primary responsibility that we owe to JMRC as a whole is to make sure that even with our operating environment nowadays with COVID is that there is no impact to the mission,” Carter said.

Decontaminating the building also means that the team needs to take precautions to ensure that they do not become infected while working to sustain a safe and healthy environment for other soldiers.

“A primary concern for me is the safety of the team, so we will go around and ensure that the building is vacated, ventilated, and ready for the team to enter premises safely,” Carter said.

After a 24-hour waiting period in which the room is barred from entrance and ventilated, the team members don personal protective gear (PPE) and conduct a two-part cleaning process for each affected room. After allowing a bleach solution to sit on surfaces for at least 10 minutes, the team then goes in and does a final clean and wipe down of the room.

Carter said that working with multinational soldiers who arrive at the Hohenfels Training Area is another major part of maintaining health and safety. Considerations when working in a multinational setting include language barriers, as well as differences in COVID-19 precautions among the various nations.

Staff Sgt. Michael Grantham helps lead the Timberwolves’ clean team, and said that the process has created a unique challenge to any group that is tasked to clean the buildings. The number of rooms can change dramatically throughout the week. Balancing the unpredictable nature of the cleaning mission with the soldiers’ regular duties has proven to be something that he and his team have had to take in stride as they complete the mission.

“It has been a learning curve,” he said. “Looking at the long range calendar, we typically know exactly what we will be doing tomorrow, but now with this incorporated in, we don’t know what will happen.”

Grantham added that the safety precautions that have been put in place make the task less daunting.

“It was a concern at first,” he said. “But the control measures that we took when we went in made it a little bit easier to go in... it makes it easier to actually go in there and do the job.”

• Date Taken: 10.30.2020
• Date Posted: 10.31.2020 06:38
• Story ID: 382066
• Location: HOHENFELS, BY, DE