Photo By John Hughel | Spectators begin to arrive at Hayward Field at the University of Oregon, Eugene, Ore.,...... read more read more
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EUGENE, Ore. - The Oregon National Guard’s 102nd Weapons of Mass Destruction – Civil Support Team (CST) was called upon by the Eugene Police Department to provide 24-hour Joint Hazard Assessment Team (JHAT) Operations for the World Athletics Championships, June 15-24, 2022.
The Championships, dubbed Oregon 22, were held at the University of Oregon’s Hayward Field, and was the first time this event has been hosted in the United States. Approximately 2,000 of the best track and field athletes from more than 200 countries competed during the event.
Oregonians have been eager to get back to attending mass public gatherings after facing over a year of restrictions due to Covid-19.
However, the Coronavirus hasn’t been the only potential threat for attendees of large-scale events. To help protect participants and spectators from any nefarious activity, the CST, in cooperation with other state and federal agencies, are typically mobilized to provide safeguards and security at these events by assisting authorities with early-detection and analysis capabilities of chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear or high-yield explosives (CBRNE) threats.
The CST, based in Salem, is comprised of 22 full-time Army and Air National Guard members. Staff Sgt. Kayla Smith, CST member, said you never know when there’s going to be an incident.
“If an incident were to arise, it could get out of hand quickly,” she said. “If there’s a biological incident, which can obviously go undetected really fast, like Covid, so having us as a team to be able to identify or recognize there’s a hazard and mitigate it fast--that’s what’s important.”
Hayward Field is familiar territory for the CST, who also conducted JHAT operations during football games and the Olympic Track and Field Trials, held at Hayward in 2021. Cpt. Philip Troy, Operations Officer, who has worked with the Oregon CST since 2019, and with Kansas CST prior to that, said the Olympic Trials helped prepare his team for Oregon 22.
“Though it was on a lot smaller scale,” Troy said, “we got to meet our partner agencies that we would be working with.”
These partner agencies include the Eugene Police Department and Oregon State Police, the Eugene Fire Department, Homeland Security, Department of Energy, and the Coast Guard to name a few. Each JHAT team consists of members from these partner agencies and includes HAZMAT (fire and paramedic), a police bomb technician, an explosive K-9 handler, and a member of the Oregon Guard’s CST. The JHAT worked together, regularly patrolling the grounds, to conduct sweeps to evaluate and respond to any suspicious packages, persons, or other potential threats in order to help ensure the safety of the participants and observers at the Championships.
Troy said all the hard work really goes into the preparation, as the training they do to prepare for these events is “very extensive” and “very lengthy.”
“Day one of the event, things just kind of slow down because everything falls into place,” he added.
Despite all the preparation, when thinking about the millions of viewers around the world who would be watching Oregon 22, Troy said the event was a big deal.
“It’s pretty important we were on our ‘A’ game, and we were doing everything we were supposed to be doing,” he said.
Sgt. Jeremy Jamieson, CBRNE Specialist and CST survey team member, said their unit cohesiveness also helped contribute to the success of the mission.
“We all run a pretty tight ship here,” Jamieson said. “We’ve worked with each other for multiple years, so each year we’ve gotten more confident working with each other.”
Maj. Richard Hosmer, Commander, added the past relationships that have been built with the partner agencies have also been invaluable.
“When the team originally went heavy back in 2004, some of the original members hired were already active members of the police department, and that really transpired into relationships from the ground level,” he said. “We’ve developed a lot of our training plans to support our community agencies as opposed to trying to have our scope too big, trying to take on too much. So, I think it’s a little bit two-fold. It’s the established partnerships and there’s good continuity on the team. I think that’s just helped build upon the legacy the original members have put in place.”
City of Eugene Police Sgt. Demian San Miguel, Bomb Squad Commander, concurred with Hosmer that the relationships between the partner agencies and CST are what make the whole thing work. San Miguel also has a unique perspective, as while he works with CST as one of the partner agencies, he is also a Lieutenant Colonel in the Oregon Guard and used to be a member of CST for over four years.
“I know if I give it to CST, I don’t even have to worry about it; they will knock it out of the ballpark,” San Miguel said. “CST brings the ability to problem solve through complex situations, whether communication, CBRNE threats, or coordination between multiple agencies. They are extremely proactive. They make my job as a civilian requester 100 percent easier.”
Overall, Troy said being a member of the CST provides a lot of unexpected opportunities.
“A lot of the Guard has no idea what the CST is,” he said. “There are so many things we get to do that you don’t even think about—being lowered from a Coast Guard helicopter onto a ship, swift water rescue, ropes training, embedding with the community you’re working with—you don’t fathom just how much you learn. It just opens a bunch of doors you never knew existed. It’s the greatest job in the Guard that nobody knows about.”
| Date Taken: | 07.26.2022 |
| Date Posted: | 09.20.2022 19:41 |
| Story ID: | 429744 |
| Location: | EUGENE, OREGON, US |
| Web Views: | 243 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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