Airmen, Soldiers jointly hone chemical response skills

  • Published
  • By Tech. Sgt. Bret Reinhardt
  • Air Force Print News
RAMSTEIN AIR BASE, Germany (AFNEWS) --  In today's Air Force. Airmen are warfighters focused on helping win the war on terrorism. Part of that focus involves working interdependently with other services in what is definitely a joint fight. As the Air Force continues to increase its footprint in the joint environment more and more Air Force career fields are working with their sister- service counterparts.

For the first time, Airmen and Soldiers in the chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear response experts are working together to share ideas during a recent chemical response exercise that included a simulated deployment.

Two Soldiers from the 18th Engineer Brigades' Emergency Management Assessment Team out of Heidelberg, Germany and one Air Force Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear Technician, or CBRN for short, worked their way through a chemical response exercise at Ramstein Air Base. However, for the purposes of the exercise, they have simulated a deployment to Djibouti, Africa where host nation officials have asked for assistance with a suspected chemical weapons lab.

EMAT member Army Sergeant David Cox said, "The African General of their military stated they found some type of munitions handling area or some kind of chemical lab setup and called us up and asked us to come down and check it out."

What makes this training unique is that it's the first time the Air Force CBRN technicians and Army EMAT units have worked together in a joint exercise, and a great opportunity to share tactics, techniques, and procedures with one another.

"We can't do it by ourselves, this is a joint team, where we have the people and a little bit of equipment, and they have the equipment but only twelve people," said Tech. Sgt. Greg Brannan, the Full Spectrum Threat Response Strike Team coordinator.

As the Air Force continues to be highly capable and efficient, exercises like this will continue to help hone the skills today's Airmen bring to the fight. 

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