Guard trains with SEMO first responders

Missouri National Guard Sgt. Joseph Ramsey, left orange, and Staff Sgt. Anthony Klenke, both of the 7th Civil Support Team, go through a decontamination line provided by the Cape Girardeau Fire Department during a recent hazmat exercise. (Photo by Matthew J. Wilson)

The Missouri National Guard's 7th Weapons of Mass Destruction Civil Support Team spent last week training with first responders in southeast Missouri.

The mission of the 22-person team made up of Missouri Army and Air National Guardsmen is to support civil authorities at a domestic chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear and high-yield explosives incident site by identifying hazardous substances, assessing current and projected consequences, advising on response measures and assisting with appropriate requests for additional state, regional and national support. The Jefferson City based team trains with Missouri first responders throughout the state about once a month.

The training started Sept. 8 when the team conducted an internal hazmat exercise in Fruitland, followed by a communications exercise Sept. 9 with local first responders and a joint hazmat exercise Sept. 10 with the Region E Homeland Security Response Team at different locations in Cape Girardeau. All three events were tied together.

"My objective for the team was to start working towards the goal of completing a 72-hour exercise," said Capt. Theresa Wagner, the team's operations officer who put the scenarios together. "It has been a couple of years since we did successive exercises and it tests our endurance both mentally and physically. It makes the team look at a hazard from all perspectives and figure out all pieces. It also maximizes our training time available during our scheduled temporary duty trips."

To begin the scenario, the team was called to the Fruitland Livestock Auction Company after several cows kept in the same barn became sick and died. Inside the barn, Sgt. Hugh Mills, a member of the 7th's reconnaissance section, discovered a lab where an unknown substance was being manufactured.

"It was satisfying to see that we had found what we had set out to accomplish," said Mills, who lives in Iberia.

Wearing hazmat suits, two members of the team gathered samples from the lab. After they were analyzed, it was determined by the team that a deadly chemical had been created in the lab. The team also discovered the chemical had been dispersed into the animals' water source, where the cows ingested it. The team neutralized any remnants of the chemical to ensure it wouldn't cause further harm.

Mills said investigating the lab was a good training opportunity for him and the three other members of recon that have been with the team less than a year.

"I think by far, anytime we get a chance to put on the suit and run a complete mission just as new guys, so we can work out the kinks ourselves, is much more beneficial," Mills said. "Being able to see from our perspective and learn at our level right there is invaluable."

During the exercise, the team practiced a man-down scenario, where Mills suffered a simulated broken leg in his hazmat suit and had to be removed from the lab area to be decontaminated. To get out of the contaminated area, Mills was strapped to a backboard, placed on a cart and pulled to safety by an all-terrain vehicle.

"The ride back was a little hairy, but other than that it was all right," Mills said.

The following day, the team utilized its Unified Command Suite, a communications truck operated by Tech. Sgt. Anthony Gordes, to create a communications hub among area first responders from the Cape Girardeau, Kennett, Sikeston and Jackson fire departments, who were investigating deaths of other cows on farms in the area that were recently purchased at the Fruitland Livestock Auction. The investigation was simulated within the parking lot of the Osage Center.

"We wanted to see if outside agencies can communicate into our equipment and provide timely information to the operation," said Gordes, who lives in Salem. "Most everything worked very well."

Gordes said it was a learning experience to see what type of communications equipment each group of first responders had and how it could all be best coordinated.

"We shouldn't assume that they all have the same equipment," he said. "We had four agencies and some had some capabilities and others didn't. So we had to find ways to work with what we had."

The final day of the scenario culminated with the discovery by members of the Cape Girardeau Fire Department of two barrels in the back of a pickup leaking the chemical created back in the lab into Sloan Creek during a downpour of rain.

Dressed in hazmat suits, the Cape Girardeau Fire Department and Missouri Guard team each sent a four-person squad to the truck where each group secured a barrel by placing it into a sealed container to prevent further spread of the chemical. Wagner said both groups benefited from seeing how the other would respond to sealing the barrels.

"Working with first responders is always interesting because each department has their own tactics, techniques and standard operating procedures," said Wagner, who lives in Linn. "Trying to get two or more units working together towards a common goal takes lots of coordination and causes both units to tweak their individual practices in order to ensure we can all work together."

As part of the mission, Sgt. Joseph Ramsey, who lives in Jefferson City, was responsible for plugging leaks on the 7th Civil Support Team's barrel by hammering wooden dowel rods into the small holes. It was the first time Ramsey had seen this type of scenario since he went through the Civil Support Skills Course -- the basic training for civil support team members -- in May and June.

"It was a little more complicated this time," Ramsey said. "We were in the back of a truck where it was really awkward and really slick. We are in level A hazmat suits while it's raining and I was trying to find these little bitty holes. It took me a while to find two of the three holes. I only had two plugs that fit in the holes, so I had to break one in half to make three."

Relying on training to determine solutions to unexpected problems is all part of the job, Ramsey said.

"You have to make stuff up on the fly and make do with what you've got," he said.

Wagner called the training exercise a success and said the team looks forward to training with more state first responders in the future.

"Our objective is always to intermingle with the local first responders and train to understand their tactics, techniques and procedures," she said. "It is always a successful mission when we work together and exchange experiences."

For more information about the Missouri National Guard, please call 1-800-GoGuard or visit www.moguard.com.

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For more information about this release, please contact Matthew J. Wilson at 573-638-9500 EXT. 4853 or e-mail him at matthew.j.wilson4@us.army.mil.