Photo By Maj. Maryjane Porter | The 411th Chemical Company's Sgt. Erik Baum (bottom left) and Spec. Ferdinando Palumbe...... read more read more
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VICKSBURG, Miss. - Soldiers from the 411th Chemical Company based in Edison, N.J., get hands-on experience as part of exercise Red Dragon 2013 at Fort McCoy, Wis. The annual exercise concentrated on lane training for chemical elements to re-familiarize the soldiers with their equipment and military occupational specialties.
"The 411th’s mission at Red Dragon is getting back to the basics of chemical," said Sgt. 1st Class Magaly Santillan, a decontamination platoon sergeant. "We're using this opportunity to train to our mission tasks basically doing squad-level training."
The Biological Integrated Detection System platoon sergeant Sgt. 1st Class Patrice Brown said, "I have two teams for this exercise, and we're training on setting up the BIDS trucks. BIDS is an early warning and identification system used against airborne biological agents. This year our company designated each platoon with their own mission, and then we integrated back in with each other."
"My platoon is the BIDS platoon, so we go out and we mostly do biological surveillance," said Brown.
"Our mission is biological point detection," said Spc. Ferdinando Palumbe, a BIDS operator, in Brown’s platoon. "In a combat environment, we'd be on the perimeter of an area of operations."
Brown said, "My two team sergeants are teaching their teams basically from start up to shut down procedures with the BIDS because we have soldiers who haven't been to school yet. The BIDS is a lot of hands-on training."
"You have to touch it," said Brown. "There's a lot going on with these vehicles. It's really not something you can teach in a classroom."
"Right now, we're doing set up procedures on BIDS," said Palumbe. "How to put down the nets that filter the air up to the stacks and how to roll up the nets so they can be easily set up for future operations."
"In the event of some sort of biological attack, my platoon pulls or takes whatever is in the air," said Brown. "We put it into a containerized unit so that we can sample it and package it, and then send it up to higher headquarters.”
"In a scenario where a biological agent is released, our BIDS system would detect it," said Palumbe. "We'd be able to package up that detection and send it to a lab where they could determine what that agent is and have a medical team ready to treat soldiers."
"After a chemical attack, a platoon or company-sized unit will go through a decontamination site," said Santillan. "That's our job to decontaminate them."
"What we've been trying to do at Red Dragon is train the basics because the majority of our mission for the past 10 years has been mass casualty decontamination," said Santillan. "Recently, it switched back to a green mission, which is either a Detailed Troop Decontamination or Detailed Equipment Decontamination training. Most of us, we haven't done a green mission since we were in school."
"There are five stations at DTD and the DED station as well," said Santillan. As they go through decontamination, they're being washed, decontaminated and being monitored."
"At the first station, you remove the gross contamination," said Santillan. "By station five, the personnel and vehicle are scanned by the Improved Chemical Agent Monitor and other detectors to make sure everything is good to go."
Pfc. Brenden Morales, a 411th chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear specialist said, "This hands-on training shows what works and what we need to work on. We need more of this type of training. I couldn't learn this in a classroom."
"I think I'm more comfortable after training because you refresh things," said Palumbe. "Some of the younger folks that have been to school more recently have an improved way of doing things so as we train, the newer soldiers are training the folks that have been here awhile."
"Our new soldiers are the most motivated," said Santillan. "They are the subject matter experts. They've been training us and helping us to remember all the basics that most us haven't done in 10 years."
"It's been a challenge, but we're using the time," said Santillan. "We're learning so much every day, and we're trying to get the best training."
"We're trying to keep our motivation up," said Santillan. "We also did a confidence course and a lot of team building exercises with the platoons. I think we've definitely became closer as a company."
"We're just trying to rise to the challenges," said Santillan. "Trying to aspire, be flexible and just train."
| Date Taken: | 01.17.2014 |
| Date Posted: | 01.17.2014 09:36 |
| Story ID: | 119303 |
| Location: | VICKSBURG, MISSISSIPPI, US |
| Web Views: | 62 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
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