YAKIMA TRAINING CENTER, Wash. – Soldiers with the 181st Chemical Company, 2nd Chemical Biological Radiological Nuclear Battalion engaged in a mass chemical contamination scenario May 11 at Hammer training center, near Richland, Wash.
The soldiers set up a chemical decontamination assembly area to process the simulated casualties while an additional platoon swept the area for any additional threats.
“Today we are practicing a massive DECON,” said Pfc. Gislaine Powers, chemical specialist, 181st Chemical Company, 2nd CBRN Bn. “Basically there is a chemical attack or a spill and there are a bunch of civilians that were contaminated. They are going through our assembly line and we are decontaminating them.”
The soldiers process the casualties according to level of injury and methodically decontaminate everyone in a timely manner in order to be validated.
“We have an ambulatory and a non-ambulatory line,” Powers said. “The non-ambulatory line is for those who are injured, broke their arms or legs and the ambulatory is for those who can walk. For the ambulatory you have to have 40-60 people decontaminated in one hour and for the non-ambulatory you have to have 20 people per hour. You have to have so many victims going through per minute and it’s hard getting them though.”
For the Soldiers of the 181st Chemical Company it was a new experience and provided them a chance to apply what they learned in training in a realistic scenario.
“It’s tough, because you lose a lot of hydration while inside the level C suit,” said Pfc. Micah Blackburn, chemical specialist, 181st Chemical Company, 2nd CBRN Bn. “It’s also something new so there is a lot of mental stress going on as well. You’re trying to remember a lot of stuff you learned from a book and apply it with physical labor.”
Civilian instructors from Army North were on hand to provide insight that can only be gleaned from experience.
“They [the civilians] are very good,” Blackburn said. “They are very knowledgeable. They know a lot more about this than we do and have been able to pass along good information. They showed us a few of the things we’ve been doing the hard way and showed us an easier way.”
Unlike the Army's traditional standardized training, the civilians brought to the table the spice of life: variety.
“It [working with the civilians] is difficult,” Powers said. “They all have their own way of training. I learned different techniques from each person.”
This training is just one step of many the 2nd CBRN Bn. will undertake while at Yakima Training Center, Wash.
“As part of the exercise we deployed to Yakima Training Center from four different installations,” said Lt. Col. Chris Cox, battalion commander, 2nd Chemical Biological Radiological Nuclear Battalion. “There is more training. We are about halfway through right now. The training culminates May 18.”
The goal of this training is preparing the unit for protecting the United States and its people.
“We are practicing for the Defense Chemical Biological Radiological Nuclear Force mission we’re assuming Oct. 1,” Cox said. “A good example is if an event happened like what happened in Japan, we’ll be part of a Task Force that would deploy in support of the nation and assist our fellow citizens. We are validating two of our companies who are accepting this mission.”
Like training should, this experience brought the soldiers together in confidence and camaraderie.
“I have all the confidence in the world,” Blackburn said. “We took to this quickly. I like this unit. There is a lot of unit cohesion with the 181st. Everyone gets along and are a really tight knit group.”
| Date Taken: |
05.11.2011 |
| Date Posted: |
05.12.2011 19:27 |
| Story ID: |
70289 |
| Location: |
WASHINGTON, US |
| Web Views: |
297 |
| Downloads: |
1 |
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This work, 181st Chemical Company soldiers hammer out DECON details, by SGT Eric Glassey, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
