CBRNE trains Airmen to suit up, save lives

by Air Force Staff Sgt. William Banton
JBER Public Affairs

1/17/2014 - JOINT BASE ELMENDORF-RICHARDSON, Alaska -- When Airmen join the Air Force, they swear an oath to defend the United States and its people. For many, this oath holds the weight of doing jobs which may cause harm to themselves in order to ensure the safety and well-being of American citizens.

The men and women of the emergency management career field come face to face with the realities of possible dangers in the world starting at their technical school.

"Going through tech school at 18 years old, I went through a live nerve agent chamber," said Tech Sgt. Robert Kelly, non-commissioned officer in charge of the Office of Emergency Management for Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson. "Any [emergency manager] has to go through a live nerve agent chamber to graduate, so we have to hold VX gas in our hand, a live blister agent. We actually touch that stuff."

The trainees go through the live chamber with the same gear they will eventually use to keep Airmen safe.

"Honestly, I was very nervous about it," said Airman 1st Class Matthew Castellanos, an emergency management specialist with the 773d Civil Engineer Squadron. "Seeing the actual chemicals come up [in the chamber], it's like, 'Wow this stuff can kill you in less than five minutes!'"

Emergency management works within civil engineer squadrons on Air Force installations to prevent, prepare, respond and recover from manmade or natural disasters, Kelly said.
"If there is a chemical incident or a hazmat incident, we go out and we detect what kind of chemical it is, or what kind of hazard, " he said.

They do this by teaching courses on preparation for emergencies and they write base plans on how to operate during emergencies. Examples of their daily duties include teaching chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear and explosive weapons defense survival skills classes, and ensuring unit control centers are operational.

They also ensure there is an up-to-date base Contingency Emergency Management Plan, making sure that the plan is functional and that each unit's portion of that plan is realistic and achievable.

"Some of the challenges of operating in a CBRN environment is dealing with the stress of being in the gear, to include not just wearing it but also knowing that if you don't do it properly or if you mess-up, it could be a life-or-death situation," Kelly said.

At Basic Military Training, warrior week teaches Airmen the fundamentals, Kelly said. While computer-based training is intended to be a refresher of those fundamentals, the hands on CBRNE class is designed to teach local procedures and provides hand-on certification.

"You can read how to shoot an M-16 or M-4 all day, but what we are doing would be like certifying you on it," said Kelly.

Castellanos confirmed this sentiment and said he feels this training is important.
"I feel this is important because dealing with all the chemicals, if there is an after-accident incident or a white powder incident, they need someone who knows how to identify if it is hazardous or not," Castellanos said.

They also need to know how to inspect and don their Mission Oriented Protective Posture gear and how to safely inspect their gas mask and MOPP gear, Castellanos said.

Emergency management incorporates CBRNE survivor skills and the local procedures into unit training is by arranging Ability to Survive and Operate "Rodeos." During the next few months emergency management is planning to host multiple week-long rodeos intended to train and test JBER personnel skills on how to operate in a CBRNE environment.

CBRNE is essential to ensuring mission success and unit safety, Castellanos said. Emergency management is there to make sure that Airmen are able to operate and get mission-essential tasks done in a chemical environment.