Joint agency turnout for CST training

Photo By Mark Olsen | U.S. Army Sgt. Eric J. Boyer, survey team member, 21st Weapons of Mass Destruction-Civil Support Team, New Jersey National Guard, surveys the CURE Insurance Arena in Trenton, New Jersey, March 28, 2024, during the Joint Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear, and High Yield Explosives Characterization, Exploitation, and Mitigation Course – JCCEM. During the course, the 21st WMD-CST; the New Jersey Air National Guard’s 177th Fighter Wing Explosive Ordnance Disposal team; FBI; New Jersey State Police, and members of the Delaware and Idaho WMD-CSTs were trained by the Eniwetok Group, LLC (EGL). The participants were placed in multi-agency teams and sent to investigate mock simulated CBRN situations and then work through a solution to address the hazards. (New Jersey National Guard photo by Mark C. Olsen)  

TRENTON, NJ, UNITED STATES

04.04.2024

Story by Mark Olsen  

New Jersey National Guard   

The New Jersey national Guard’s 21st Weapons of Mass Destruction-Civil Support Team stare at the CURE Insurance Arena in Trenton, New Jersey.
In just a few hours, more than 10,000 people will crowd the facility to listen to the vice president of the United States.
The FBI has just received intelligence that a well-resourced domestic terrorist group has planted bombs, including one with cesium-137 – a radioactive isotope –in the arena.
The entire structure, from the catwalks crisscrossing above the floor; the various rooms and suites; the concession stands; the service areas; everything has to be searched.
The clock is ticking.
Fortunately, the threat isn’t real.
This time.
Four days of interagency training, March 25-28, 2024, brought together the 21st WMD-CST with Soldiers and Airmen from the 31st WMD-CST, Delaware National Guard, and the 101st WMD-CST, Idaho National Guard; explosive ordnance disposal technicians from the 177th Fighter Wing, New Jersey Air National Guard; U.S. Coast Guardsmen from the Atlantic Strike Team; New Jersey State Police; New Jersey Department of Corrections, and FBI special agent bomb technicians and a FBI weapons of mass destruction coordinator in a Joint Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear, and High Yield Explosives Characterization, Exploitation, and Mitigation Course.
“The whole intent of the course is interoperability at the operations level,” said Carrie Hiser Sivley, president, Eniwetok Group, LLC – the contractor running the course. “We're talking about the folks that are on the ground that are actually out doing the work, that do the sweeps, that do the responses.”
That means, when WMD-CST units do their sweeps and come across certain hazards, they know who to reach back to remedy those hazards so that they can continue their sweeps.
The participants spent the first two days of the National Guard Bureau-funded course in the classroom reviewing responses to chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, and explosive threats.
On March 27, the participants, which divided into four groups, assembled at the CURE Insurance Arena for the practical, hands-on training.
“It's going to be focused on realistic situations they have found to have happened already,” said U.S. Army Sgt. Eric J. Boyer, survey team member, 21st WMD-CST.
Units involved in a domestic weapons of mass destruction response must be synchronized in their response and actions.

• Date Taken: 04.04.2024
• Date Posted: 04.04.2024 16:59
• Story ID: 467839
• Location: TRENTON, NJ, US