COB BASRA, Iraq – U.S. forces respond to a request by Iraqi Security Forces to investigate a suspicious odor and liquids discovered during a routine search of a usually quiet neighborhood.
After donning spacesuit-like ‘HAZMAT’ suits, the team circles the building with detection equipment. Upon entering, they note a large number of black containers.
Twelve Soldiers and 3 Sailors recently trained in such a scenario during a 10-day Toxic Industrial Chemical Protection and Detection Equipment (TICPDE) training exercise on Contingency Operating Base Basra.
“You never know what could pop up,” said Capt. Leann Yi, 17th Fires Brigade Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear officer-in-charge.
The team has to be prepared to respond to any kind of hazardous material or toxic industrial chemical leak from a lab or a chemical manufacturing company in the area, the former Cerritos, Ca. resident said.
When 17th Fires Brigade first arrived at COB Basra, Yi and Staff Sgt. Ronny Romero, 17th FB, CBRN noncommissioned officer in charge, from Arrington, Va., was informed by the 34th Infantry Division CBRN section that Multi-National Division South – Iraq did not have a TICPDE team. The brigade coordinated with Multi-National Corps – Iraq CBRN TICPDE for trainers and equipment and told subordinate units to send their CBRN troops.
Karen Kirkpatrick, an instructor with the U. S. Forces - Iraq TICPDE team, was one of the people who answered that request. The 80-hour course is the same training received by stateside emergency services personnel, Kirkpatrick said.
For the military, this training is usually given to CBRN specialists prior to deployment. However with the high operational tempo and the limited number of trained CBRN troops, it isn’t provided all of the time.
The training requires at least nine people for a team to travel to a site and bring all the equipment needed. Fifteen military members showed up for this training including an Army mechanic and three naval hull maintenance technicians.
During the classes, trainees learned to inventory and operate all the protection and detection equipment.
They also rehearsed the roles each team will play when working in a hazardous environment. First they practiced as the initial-entry team, then as the identification and detection team and finally as the sample-collection team.
Before the scenario-based training took place, the trainees played a quick game of football, but with a twist: the teams took the field in their HAZMAT suits and air tanks.
Yi and Kirkpatrick said the game was intended to allow the trainees a chance to become familiar with operating in the suits and be aware of the air supply.
“It was challenging being in the level ‘A’ suit. You have limited dexterity and limited visibility because of the condensation in the mask,” said Sgt. 1st Class Michael Blackwood, a CBRN specialist with the 203rd Military Police Battalion.
The Cleveland, Ala., native agreed with his fellow trainees about the difficulties identifying and collecting samples when actually wearing the 26-pound, Level “A” Hazardous Material training suit and breathing apparatus.
There wasn’t much time to rest for the newly trained team. Less than two days after they completed the training and became the division’s only trained TICPDE team, they accompanied the explosive ordnance disposal team on a mission to remove a missile with 500 pounds of explosives from Basra city.
