Photo By Lance Cpl. Kelcey Seymour | CAMP FOSTER, OKINAWA, Japan – A chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear...... read more read more
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CAMP FOSTER, OKINAWA, Japan – Military occupational specialties are the foundation of the Marine Corps. Each MOS is a cog, working with and relying on each other to keep the fighting machine that is the United States Marine Corps running. The chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear defense specialist field is one of these cogs.
CBRN is an MOS where Marines are trained to react and defend against different airborne, injection and absorbent hazardous attacks. They conduct training for a wide range of situations from a gas attack or chemical spill to bomb disposal or a plague.
“We train the force how to recognize hazards, and how to individually or collectively survive and execute their mission in a contaminated environment,” said Chief Warrant Officer James Deselms, the CBRN defense officer with Headquarter Marine Aircraft Group 36, 1st Marine Aircraft Wing, III Marine Expeditionary Force. “We teach Marines how to continue to do their jobs with minimal problems in the different environments.”
This puts a lot of responsibility on the CBRN Marines. As such, their schooling is intensive. CBRN defense specialists go through 13 weeks of schooling in Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri. They learn the fundamentals of chemistry, how agents are made, and all the equipment used in the job. They also learn hazard plotting, which teaches them the effects of wind on the hazard and how weather affects contaminated areas. Marines are tested their first week. If they fail, there is no second chance.
“It requires more technical knowledge,” said Deselms. “We need to learn about biology, chemistry and radiation. How it works, affects the human body and how it travels. It is a lot of specialized knowledge.”
Once they graduate, CBRN defense specialists are tasked to take their knowledge and use it to train their fellow Marines. Most Marines associate CBRN with the annual gas chamber training but they offer so much more. They teach Marines how to use mission oriented protective posture suits while doing their jobs. Marines learn to communicate in the MOPP suits and how to properly change out of contaminated suits. CBRN also teaches reconnaissance detection and survey training. RD&S is a training that teaches Marines to identify the basic type of chemical and biological attacks, how to maintain MOPP gear and how to decontaminate until CBRN defense specialists arrive on scene.
“Each unit is required to have 25 percent of their Marines trained in RD&S,” said Staff Sgt. Willie Alvarado, a CBRN defense specialist with headquarter MAG-36. “If there was a threat we would collectively gather the teams and they would go out for recon surveys at the potential hazard area. This also involves decontamination of people and gear.”
While running all this training, CBRN Marines also participate in joint trainings with the fire department and explosive ordnance disposal technicians. These joint trainings help the different units learn how to work with each other to locate, identify and neutralize potential hazards inside an explosive such as chemical or nuclear components.
“As war and technology advance, we have to as well,” said Deselm. “Think back to World War II when Germany was using gas, we had to learn how defend ourselves from that. That evolved into ‘what can kill us and how do we prevent that?’ and as those methods and sciences advanced, our MOS had to advance to keep up with the times.”
CBRN defense specialists ensure that the Marine Corps is capable of operating in a contaminated environment efficiently. This allows Marines to be “ready to fight tonight.”
| Date Taken: | 01.11.2018 |
| Date Posted: | 01.19.2018 01:57 |
| Story ID: | 262521 |
| Location: | OKINAWA, JP |
| Web Views: | 1,015 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
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