US Army soldiers from the 720th Ordnance Company (Explosive Ordnance Disposal) have received training on self-contained breathing apparatus equipment.
During the two-week Chemical Biological Radiological and Nuclear Hazardous Material Technician Course, soldiers gained skills and knowledge to help them respond to a weapon of mass destruction incident.
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Through this training, the 720th EOD unit is able to get its soldiers certified on the SCBA, a CBRN equipment recently issued to the unit.
720th EOD unit platoon sergeant Christopher Story said: “This training is important because it expands the capabilities of the EOD for the chemical realm, giving us equipment that we didn’t currently have, but were are now expected to perform the procedures for chemical.”
Training will be provided on various CBRN equipment and soldiers will be made familiar with personal protective equipment, fundamentals of toxic industrial chemicals / materials, sampling and collection procedures.
Department of Tactics and Training hazardous material training specialist Edgardo Garcia said: “We teach them a wide variety of equipment ranging from presumptive identification to detection, protection and decontamination.
“This is beneficial to the EOD units as it adds a combat multiplier towards the detection of WMD and provides early warning against toxic industrial chemical, that could cause severe health issues, or immediate dangers to life and health and possibly death towards unsuspecting soldiers.”
Garcia further added that with the training, the responder will be able to decontaminate upon completion of the mission without assistance from outside agencies.
At the conclusion of the training, the 720th Soldiers will receive certification to the International Fire Service Accreditation Congress Hazardous Material Technician Level of training.
Last November, US Army Contracting Command Orlando awarded a contract to Ravenswood to support the Army National Guard’s (ARNG) training programme.
