Photo By Senior Master Sgt. Matthew Hecht | U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Jeff Whalen from the New Jersey National Guard's 21st Civil...... read more read more
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CHERRY HILL, N.J. - The New Jersey National Guard’s 21st Civil Support Team kicked off a no-notice evaluation exercise at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, N.J., on June 3. The team was alerted to a scenario that centered around a possible weapons of mass destruction event at the Cherry Hill Armory in Cherry Hill, N.J.
The 21st Civil Support Team is one of 10 weapons of mass destruction Civil Support Teams that were established to deploy rapidly to assist a local incident commander in determining the nature and extent of an incident, to provide expert advice on weapons of mass destruction response, and to support the arrival of follow-on state and federal military units.
The no-notice training is part of strict validation process, with their certification exercise coming early next year. U.S. Army civilians from U.S. Army North were on hand to evaluate and educate the team.
“The evaluators are playing the role of the Cherry Hill Fire Department,” said U.S. Army North member Ricky Martin. “The civil support team will be in a support role assisting the local authorities in detecting any hazardous materials. We’ll be looking at that whole process.”
After setting up the tactical operations center, the team had a safety/mission brief, and suited up to enter the hot zone scanning for hazards.
“It’s a fully encapsulated suit, so it gets pretty hot,” said Sgt. Christopher Maude, a Soldier with the team. “With body heat plus near 100 percent humidity, it can get so wet in the suit it looks like it’s raining.”
Despite the hardships of being in the suit for extended periods of time, Maude finds the experience of being part of the 21st Civil Support Team to be rewarding.
“It makes me feel really proud to know that myself and my team members, should the time come, we can go and help the civilian responders or whoever else needs us, to make sure our communities are safe,” said Maude.
“It is a proud and humbling experience.”
| Date Taken: | 06.03.2015 |
| Date Posted: | 06.04.2015 11:59 |
| Story ID: | 165472 |
| Location: | CHERRY HILL, NEW JERSEY, US |
| Web Views: | 255 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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