Photo By Sgt. 1st Class Angel Martinez-Navedo | Brig. Gen. William King IV, commander of the 20th CBRNE Command, greets Brig. Gen....... read more read more
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By Brig. Gen. William King IV, commander, 20th CBRNE Command
This past Friday the command celebrated its 12th anniversary, and I want to thank you, each of you for everything you have done since you have been part of Team CBRNE. Over the last 12 years the Soldiers, civilians and contractors of this command have served honorably both here in the homeland and around the globe. Together, we have made this command a success. Together, we have made sure that our Soldiers, allies and partners are safe around the world from the dangers of CBRNE threats and can return to their families.
Twelve years is both a very short time and a long time. Compared to the 1st Infantry Division, or the 82nd Airborne Division, our command is still an adolescent. On the other hand, operating twelve years in one of the most complex security environments doing what we do day in and day out is an achievement we can be proud of. We have established ourselves as experts around the world in this field. From Aberdeen to Seoul our allies and partners want to become us, you have set the standard as to what a CBRNE Soldiers should be and how to operate in this field.
The 12th anniversary is associated with silk, and you may be asking yourself what does silk have to do with the chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear and explosives aspect of this command? First, like anything in the Army, SILK is an acronym, Soldiers Integrated through Leadership and Knowledge. Over the last twelve years, you were instrumental in creating this cohesive team. We have integrated our CBRN and EOD Soldiers, scientists, civilians and contractors seamlessly, through your leadership, training and experience. You have helped foster an organization where we freely share ideas to better not only each other but the organization. In fact, that is the true essence of what this command is all about. Just like the Silk Road of previous times, it was a means of sharing and exchanging both goods, ideas and culture. Today, we share and build partnership capacity around the world with our unique technical capabilities of CBRNE.
This last year was a very busy year of doing just that around the globe from military-to-military, civilian-to-military and theater security cooperation efforts we have worked with our allies and partners exchanging ideas, improving capability and capacity in many countries. And it is not just around the world but here in the U.S. as well as we build capacity, interoperability and exchanges of information and tactics, techniques and procedures and how we would respond both here in the U.S. and around the world wherever the nation needs us.
The Silk Road was a passageway, a highway to those exchanges and in fact, this year being the Silk year of our anniversary is a perfect example of just that. I would just like to take you on a quick tour of the Silk Road to show you what you and this command have done these past 12 years. From Asia to Europe we have worked with our allies and partners along the Silk Road. Most recently, we certified as the Joint Task Force-Elimination in Korea during Ulchi Freedom Guardian. Since 2004 we have developed a rock solid relationship with the 8th Army and our Korean counterparts in the ROK Chemical, Biological, Radiological Defense Command. 1st Area Medical Laboratory also supports the alliance with a Laboratory Technician to support the bio-warfare and endemic disease surveillance program in South Korea.
Moving further along the Silk Road in Thailand we worked with Thai military and police EOD technicians in heavily mined jungles. They have a constant threat, and we were able to share experiences and lessons learned from each other.
Along the Silk Road in Afghanistan and Iraq, we continue to serve, protecting our family, our friends, our allies and partners as we defeat and defuse the IED, the weapon that has come to symbolize the war of the last 15 years. Over the last 15 years, we have lost 34 of our brothers and sisters in arms working to defuse these weapons as they try to bring security to these nations. Their sacrifice is one we will not soon forget. Our soldiers work day in and day out to honor the sacrifice of these soldiers and to counter the effectiveness of the IED. We will continue to build capability and capacity of the host nation EOD forces to provide safety and security to their citizens so we can come home.
In the Levant and the rest of the Middle East, 20th CBRNE Soldiers have conducted training sessions and engagements to help build the capacity and capability of their forces. These nations have seen you operate over the last twelve years; they see the benefits of how we are organized and want to model their forces after us because they see the benefit in that. They see the tactical, technical skills you possess and the professionalism you bring and they want to emulate that. You, not me, are the reason we are successful.
In Africa, we are helping the nations there with IED awareness training counter-IED operations. We help partner armies detect and render safe roadside bombs, teach them to conduct forensic exams on the devices, and train them to map IED networks in an effort to exploit or disrupt their activities. Your first rate training has led to U.S. Army Africa to work towards growing the number of EOD forces it can call upon to conduct training in Africa.
And now we come to the end of the Silk Road, in Europe, we work with our NATO allies where we contribute to the development of NATO’s weapons of mass destruction capabilities, and assist in building CBRN and EOD partnership and capacity in allied and partner nations. We also cannot forget about Kosovo; we continue to serve there where we assist the Kosovo Security Forces in eliminating battlefields dating back to 1912. Since 2010 together with our allies we have cleared over a million meters of land and found over five thousands unexploded ordnances.
I am truly honored to be your commander, to serve you. You have done an amazing job these past twelve years. The nation could not ask for anything more than what you have given.
Liberty We Defend!
| Date Taken: | 10.19.2016 |
| Date Posted: | 10.20.2016 18:20 |
| Story ID: | 212523 |
| Location: | ABERDEEN PROVING GROUND, MARYLAND, US |
| Web Views: | 140 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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