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JBSA News
NEWS | April 30, 2014

First JBSA CBRN Challenge administered at Camp Talon

By Airman 1st Class Kenna Jackson Joint Base San Antonio-Randolph Public Affairs

More than 30 Airmen from Joint Base San Antonio-Randolph and JBSA-Lackland demonstrated their specialized war and homeland readiness skills as bioenvironmental engineers and emergency management technicians during the first JBSA Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Challenge April 23-25 at JBSA-Randolph's Camp Talon.

"If a real-world situation happened on one of our installations, we'd need to be able to provide expert support to the incident commander on-scene," Maj. Tre Doby, 359th Aerospace Medicine Squadron Bioenvironmental Engineer Flight commander, said.

"The JBSA CBRN Challenge honed the skills of the bioenvironmental and emergency management career fields and measured the effectiveness of emergency response procedures at the installation level. With JBSA integrating policies and plans, we need to integrate response training to strengthen professional bonds and gain priceless experiences."

The idea to coordinate the JBSA CBRN challenge originated with two NCOs who had worked together at a prior assignment. Staff. Sgt. Justin Lee, 359th AMDS Bioenvironmental Engineer Flight readiness element NCO in charge, and Tech. Sgt. Markus Manuel, 559th AMDS NCO in charge of radiation, discussed ideas with the lead from 502nd Civil Engineer Squadron emergency management, Greg Wilson. They planned to put together a joint training opportunity for the 559th AMDS at JBSA-Lackland, 359th AMDS at JBSA-Randolph and 502nd Emergency Management, that was both "cool" and "effective."

Using the former Air Force BEE CBRN challenge - a weeklong event during which responders employed homeland defense and expeditionary CBRN detection equipment in realistic scenarios - as a blueprint, Doby's AMDS team and their 502nd CES EM counterparts, planned, organized and successfully executed their JBSA-specific CBRN challenge.

Three months after the planning process for the challenge event began, participants were pitted against each other in competing teams for a series of timed events. The teams rotated daily for three days through the scenarios, each lasting three hours.

Scenarios included a "Clandestine Lab," or a meth lab; "Emergency Management," a scenario set in a simulated deployed location where the enemy attacks with an unknown chemical agent; and "Warehouse with Radioisotopes."

Throughout the challenge, evaluators - two from emergency management and four from bioenvironmental - judged the teams on efficiency, time and knowledge assessment, including equipment operation and safety checks.

Although the "Clandestine Lab" and "Emergency Management" were challenging, Doby said the toughest one was "Warehouse with Radioisotopes."

Doby said teams were not only evaluated on identifying potential isotopes, but on how well they prepared a health risk assessment for the incident commander.

"We looked at what detection equipment they brought and if it was properly calibrated," Doby said. "We also checked to make sure the appropriate gear was worn correctly - ensuring it protected them from radioactive exposure."

Lee echoed Doby's judgment.

"Radiation is not visible, not tangible, and it's probably one of the most detailed jobs Airmen in our career field are faced with," Lee said. "The checklist is very long, from accurately identifying what type of radiation it is, acknowledging and documenting what those hazards present, delivering the assessment of the area to responders so they will have the right protective gear on and making sure everyone else on-scene is aware and prepared with protective equipment, or is at a safe distance."

"Dealing with radiation is not clear-cut and it's not like a physical barrier can just be put between people and the radiation," he added.

Lee said the point of the challenge was to get Airmen to use all the different skills they would need to identify bioenvironmental hazards, whether at home station or in a warfare situation, and it was thanks to Doby; Maj. Ernest Scott Jr., 559th AMDS Flight commander; and Master Sgt. Thomas Terry, 559th AMDS Flight chief, who facilitated the event.

On the last day, players competed in a relay race, land navigation course and a bioenvironmental engineering knowledge game modeled after the "Jeopardy" TV quiz show.

"I think this challenge was great training," Senior Airman Jerry Shackelford, 359th AMDS bioenvironmental technician said. "It gave us the opportunity to work on our abilities, get better at our job. If we end up doing this next year too, I definitely want to do it again."