20th CBRNE Soldiers take EDRE underground

Photo By Staff Sgt. Godot Galgano | Soldiers with Task Force 110 perform Sensitive Site Exploitation in support of an emergency deployment readiness exercise, April 27, at Crestwood, Kentucky’s subterranean training complex. Performing SSE involves collecting information, material, and persons from a designated location and analyzing them to answer information requirements, facilitate subsequent operations or support possible criminal prosecution. (U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Godot G. Galgano, 1st Theater Sustainment Command Public Affairs)  

FORT KNOX, KY, UNITED STATES

04.28.2021

Story by Jacob Caldwell and Marshall Mason

U.S. Army Forces Command

FORT KNOX, KY – The U.S. Army is a globally responsive force ready to deploy at a moment’s notice. These are not just fancy words written in a slogan or mission statement.
The U.S. Army puts its personnel, units, organizations and the equipment they utilize, through realistic real-world training to ensure razor-sharp precision.
One of the training methods the U.S. Army uses is an Emergency Deployment Readiness Exercise.
An EDRE is specifically designed to test a unit’s ability to exercise the procedures associated with recalling unit members, preparing personnel and equipment for movement, deploying, and planning an conducting a mission.
On April 8, the Commanding General of the U.S. Army Forces Command, Gen. Michael X. Garrett, called an EDRE for the 110th Chemical Battalion out of Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Wash.
By April 17, the 110th Chemical Battalion, had deployed nearly 200 Soldiers, over 50 vehicles, and all the necessary equipment to respond to a chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear or explosive incident, to Fort Knox, Ky and successfully stood up Task Force 110 in support of EDRE 21A.
At Fort Knox, TF 110 received all deploying personnel and equipment, reformed them as combat units and integrated them in the theater chain of command.
TF 110 is comprised of a small contingent from the 48th Chemical Brigade, the 110th Chemical Battalion, a light infantry company from the 101st Airborne Division, Company A, 1-502nd, two Command Post Node teams from the 51st Signal Battalion and the 1st Area Medical Laboratory.
“Successful execution of an EDRE, takes a total team effort,” said Col. W.M. Bochat, commander, 48th Chemical Brigade. “We exercised and assessed Army and Air Force capabilities to aid in the rapid deployment of Task Force 110.
Bochat said, once all forces were on ground, EDRE 21A featured a five-day training plan, which focused on combined arms, countering weapons of mass destruction and CBRN defense operations.
One of those operations included an assault on an objective in order to execute Sensitive Site Exploitation of state sponsored, nerve and blister agent production labs, chemical area and route reconnaissance, aircraft decontamination and site handover of a time-sensitive target with Special Operation Forces.
Performing SSE involves collecting information, material, and persons from a designated location and analyzing them to answer information requirements, facilitate subsequent operations or support possible criminal prosecution.
Site exploitation also consists of the following phases: securing the site (usually by force), documenting the site, searching the site, prioritizing exfiltration, and exploiting materials found.
The combined force of TF 110 executed SSE of a chemical warfare agent ammunition storage and filling facility in Crestwood, Kentucky’s subterranean facility.
Crestwood’s subterranean facility, with its catacombs of limestone, provided a real-world training environment, as Soldiers with TF 110, at times, had to move and communicate in complete darkness to accomplish their mission objectives.
All missions required full integration of rifle company and CBRNE enablers to neutralize threats and secure terrain, said Bochat.
“It was truly an amazing opportunity, as we are the first general-purpose force to utilize and train here at Crestwood,” she said.
At Crestwood, Soldiers from Company A, 1-502nd were able to overwhelm the enemy forces and secure the site to enable CBRN operations to begin.
During CBRN operations, a stockpile of chemical weapons was discovered, along with two detainees. The chemical weapons were confiscated and secured, and the detainees were apprehended and interrogated.
Commander of 110th Chemical Battalion, Lt. Col. Julia Brennan, said after overcoming the obstacles the unit faced back in JBLM, which involved positioning all of the vehicles and equipment to be transported and ensuring all personnel moved through the Soldier Readiness Processing center smoothly, she was quite pleased with how the Soldiers in her battalion performed.
“They were very excited,” said Brennan. “A lot of my Soldiers haven’t experienced any type of deployment operations, so all of the hard they put in at the beginning, it all paid off to get them where they are right now.”

• Date Taken: 04.28.2021
• Date Posted: 04.29.2021 11:37
• Story ID: 395101
• Location: FORT KNOX, KY, US