12
www.peninsulawarrior.com
• The Peninsula Warrior - Army
•
MAY 31, 2013
MAY 31, 2013
• The Peninsula Warrior - Army
•
www.peninsulawarrior.com
Langley Bioenvvironmental Engineering offers protectio on through detection By Master Sgt. Pamela Arellano 633RD AIR BASE WING PUBLIC AFFAIRS
Photo by Airman 1st Class Austin Harvill
U.S. Air Force Senior Airman RonellTennant, 633rd Civil Engineer Squadron emergency management technician, tightens his breathing apparatus during a training exercise at Langley Air Force Base, May 16.The training included personnel from the 633rd Medical Group’s bioenvironmental division and the 633rd CES’s fire and emergency services.
Photos by Airman 1st Class Austin Harvill
LEFT: U.S. Air Force Capt.Terry Klein, 633rd Medical Group bioenvironmental engineer, undergoes a thorough scrub-down. Team members were washed and scrubbed in a decontamination area to ensure contamination was contained. ABOVE: Terry Klein sits down for a routine medical check after removing his contaminated gear.To ensure the participants did not pass out from heat exhaustion in training or on the field, they receive vests with ice packs to keep them cool.
The hiss of a respirator pulsed rhythmically as alien-like figures, swathed in fluorescent yellow and blue plastic suits, waved chemical detection equipment over a row of jars and test tubes filled with a mysterious brown substance. This surreal scene was the culmination of a sequence of peculiar events. A security forces Airman reported seeing the strange substances and smelling something earthy, “like something that was outside, but it was coming from inside.” Investigators began to scribble notes, compare data and confer quietly. While this may seem the stuff of science fiction, it was simulated reality for Langley Air Force Base Bioenvironmental Engineering technicians during an Integrated Base Response Training exercise at Langley’s Raptor Town training facility May 17. The five-day exercise was a workshop that provided emergency base responders with an opportunity to employ homeland defense and expeditionary detection equipment in realistic scenarios. The goal of the workshop was to improve the overall incident response abilities of bioenvironmental engineering, fire and emergency services, and civil engineering emergency management personnel by encouraging realistic training and improving proficiency. Such scenarios are the bread and butter of bioenvironmental engineering, or ‘bio’ for short, who, as part of the 633rd Medical Group, execute the critical mission of protecting the personnel and assets of the 633rd Air Base Wing and its surrounding community from chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear contamination and illness. With the information they gather, bio provides operational health risk assessment expertise to support health services and aid the commander in decision making. As first responders, bio has the capability of keeping CBRN threats at bay. On a day to day basis, they monitor and recommend treatment for hazards like noise pollution and water contaminants. “We provide occupational and environmental health surveillance activities to over 90 industrial areas in three wings on the base through on-site visits and inspections,” said Maj. Greg Garrison, 633rd Medical Group bioenvironmental engineering flight command-
Photos by Airman 1st Class Austin Harvill
U.S. Air Force S Senior Airman Ronell Tennant, 633rd 6 Civil Engineer Squadron n emergency management tec chnician, suits up before going inside a contaminated buildin ng.
er. “Surveillancee includes ensuring the base pplicable laws and regulations complies with ap ational Safety and Health Adfrom the Occupa he Environmental Protection ministration, th Agency, the Nucclear Regulatory Commission, ment of Defense and Air Force and the Departm occupational safeety and health standards.” Protecting thee public is a critical mission. Lives can be at stake, and the technicians of bio take that misssion seriously. “When we go into an all-hazards situation, [the threat] is. We take in we don’t know what w collect samples and take our equipment and a nstruments,” said Senior Airreadings with in man Jessica Ketteering, bioenvironmental engian. “One could measure radineering technicia her could measure for certain ation while anoth chemicals. With that information, we help the commander deteermine how to better protect personnel.” Bio troops likee Kettering play a critical role in emergency-reesponse situations, gathering information to piece together clues about posut they don’t work alone. As sible hazards. Bu ained team, they work side by part of a well-tra
side with fire and rescue personnel and emergency managers. “We each have a different piece to play when we respond,” said Airman 1st Class Evan Bialk, 633rd Civil Engineer Squadron emergency manager and exercise participant. “We’re emergency responders. Bio goes in with their equipment and handles the situation to get a greater degree of certainty of what [the threat] is, and while we get the information too, they analyze the information on how it’s going to affect the base.” Bialk acknowledges that exercises like these are essential to readiness. “It’s not every day you get a call for a realworld event, so most of our experience comes through our exercises. This gives us the ability to determine how our plans work; this keeps us current and helps us get better.” The importance of realistic training with Langley first responders is evident to the entire team, including the Airmen of bio. “I have been doing this for a little over two years and, thank goodness, I have not used this [emergency training] in a real-world sit-
“I was ama azed at the ability of our enlisted Airmen to expertly demonstrate their respond der skills in this training. The three disciplines representing medical and mission support teams understood their objectives, worked together flaw wlessly as a cohesive team and demonstrated extraordinary understandin ng and application of the tools and resources needed to respond to an all-haza ards CBRN incident.” — Maj. Greg Garrison 633rd Medical Group bioenvironmental engineering flight commander
uation,” echoed Ketterring. “Exercises like these se help us practice for the he real thing.” Part of that practice involves donning real-world protective gear, such as gas masks ks tors equipped with respirators on and chemical protection ned suits worn over ice-lined cooling vests, which made working in the near-ninety inety degree heat tolerable. “We wear a full-encapsulatpsulating suit,” Kettering explained. lained. ards ap“We’re doing an all-hazards proach to protect us from m any kind of CBRN hazard that’s hat’s out there. We don’t know what kind of situation we’re going into.” Garrison is understandably ndably proud n do, as well of the work his Airmen as the risks they are willing ling to take to keep the base and its ts personnel safe and operational. al. “I was amazed at thee ability of our enlisted Airmen men to expertly demonstrate their rerainsponder skills in this training,” he stated. “The three hree disciplines representing medical and mission support teamss understood d together flawlesstheir objectives, worked ly as a cohesive team and nd demonstrated exding and application traordinary understanding of the tools and resources ces needed to respond to an all-hazards CBRN N incident.” esented to the team durThe final scenario presented ing the exercise, titled ‘Facility Survey,’ was a hazardous-materials response sponse to a terrorist lab contaminated with unknown nown biological and radiological materials. Together, ogether, they identified the hazard and mitigated ed the threat. With the simulated threat of test tubes and jars packed away in boxes, oxes, and the protective gear, equipment and diagnostic agnostic tools stowed in irmen of Langley Bioencases and trailers, the Airmen vironmental Engineering ng returned to their offices, prepared to take on any chemical, biological, or radiological threat eat that may occur. With the Airmen of bioenvironmental ronmental on duty, the Langley community can an have peace of mind knowing they are always ys ready to protect.
13