Photo By Tech. Sgt. Noah Tancer | Royal Saudi Air Force firefighters decontaminate a U.S. Air Force Explosive Ordnance...... read more read more
Subscribe
Armed conflict isn’t pretty and some parties don’t abide by international laws and limitations.
The 378th Expeditionary Civil Engineer’s Emergency Management flight, also known by many as CBRN (Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear), is responsible for building and establishing response and recovery actions for a wide variety of scenarios.
They are also in charge of the disaster response force should an attack on Prince Sultan Air Base, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, happen. However, the emergency management program only applies to the USCENTCOM forces deployed at PSAB. The Royal Saudi Air Force has their own chain of command and response procedures.
“My office has monthly meetings with our RSAF counterparts and they requested to see an exercise with multiple agencies playing,” said Tech. Sgt. Brooklyn Matson, the non-commissioned officer in charge of emergency management operations assigned to the 378th ECES. “So I was tasked to plan and facilitate a scenario.”
The training scenario in play was a short-range chemical munition hit an aircraft on PSAB’s flightline during an attack on the installation. The munition started an engine fire on impact, which triggered both RSAF and USAF to respond.
“We had our Fire and Emergency Service department with their RSAF counterparts, EOD (Explosive Ordnance Disposal) with an RSAF observer, and us with our CBRN counterparts playing together,” said Matson. “We also had our Security Forces, Bioenvironmental, and RSAF’s medical team participate.”
Within the gates of PSAB, RSAF and USAF personnel and assets work together side by side daily. Should one side be attacked the damage would more than likely hit or disrupt the other triggering a joint response and potential retaliation.
“I think the biggest benefit was learning each other’s processes and procedures,” said Matson. “It is difficult to see how we would all intermingle for a response without actually playing it out.”
The Emergency Management flight is a key player in building the interoperability of RSAF and USAF response in an environment where the chances of an attack or collateral damage remain real.
| Date Taken: | 10.05.2022 |
| Date Posted: | 10.05.2022 11:58 |
| Story ID: | 430758 |
| Location: | PRINCE SULTAN AIR BASE, SA |
| Web Views: | 370 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Together PSAB will respond, by TSgt Noah Tancer, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
No keywords found.
