Photo By Sgt. Samanatha Whitehead | A soldier assigned to the 3175th Chemical Company, 835th Combat Sustainment Support...... read more read more
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FORT LEONARD WOOD, Mo. – Soldiers assigned to the 3175th Chemical Company, 835th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion participated in equipment and troop decontamination exercises at Fort Leonard Wood during annual training in June.
First Lt. Janie Rogers, company commander, said the unit was training for the ‘green side’ of their mission – a deployed environment – although they also maintain a ‘white side’ mission for state emergency response.
“We do DED and DTD – detailed equipment decontamination and detailed troop decontamination,” said Rogers. “We decon vehicles if they have a persistent agent on them. They will go through the lane and get their vehicles washed down.”
Soldiers set up DED and DTD lanes as part of their annual training at a new decontamination site built at Fort Leonard Wood. The soldiers performed steps in real-time, including donning their protective masks and equipment.
The unit is made up of three different parts including a recon element, a biological integrated detection system element, and a decontamination element. The recon and BIDS elements detect and identify contaminated areas and help to contain the threat, while the decontamination element ensures Soldiers and equipment are safely decontaminated, said Rogers.
One of the company’s missions is decontaminating troops, their mission oriented protective posture gear, equipment, and vehicles, said 1st Lt. Briana Henthorne, a decontamination platoon leader and the officer in charge of the training exercise.
“If a unit goes out and finds a contaminated site, when they’re done with their mission they head back our way, and we’re the ones who decontaminate them so they can get out of their MOPP gear and they’re safe to go about the rest of their missions,” said Henthorne.
DED is a process consisting of five stations from the initial washing of the vehicle, to spraying with a super topical bleach, to rinsing and checking the vehicles for remaining contaminants with a joint chemical agent detector.
The whole process can take up to an hour and a half, said Henthorne, depending on the type and size of the vehicle being decontaminated.
DTD has eight stations that begin with removing outer protective equipment, progresses to removing gloves, masks and boots, and concludes with a thorough check for remaining contaminants with the JCADs.
The JCADs detect multiple types of contaminants quickly and accurately, said Staff Sgt. Daniel Harrison, who was working on the DTD side of the training exercise.
“After our recon teams identify the threat, that’s where we come in to either clean up the area, clean up the equipment, or clean up the people,” added Henthorne. “After that, they and their vehicles are good to complete the mission.”
| Date Taken: | 06.08.2015 |
| Date Posted: | 12.26.2015 10:30 |
| Story ID: | 185341 |
| Location: | FORT LEONARD WOOD, MISSOURI, US |
| Web Views: | 246 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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