Detect, identify, eliminate: CBRNE challenge trains hazard response teams Published July 16, 2010 By Airman 1st Class Allison M. Boehm 2d Bomb Wing Public Affairs BARKSDALE AIR FORCE BASE, La -- It has been two years since the last chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, and high-yield explosives (CBRNE) incident at Barksdale. Although these hazardous incidents are infrequent, training such as the CBRNE Challenge allows the bioenvironmental engineering and emergency management teams to put their emergency response skills into practice for when their services are needed again. The annual CBRNE Challenge, held July 12-15, 2010, presented several different types of emergency response scenarios to the Bio and EM team including chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear threats. The team responded to each scenario using their emergency response equipment and personal protective equipment. "This training can be hard, especially when we were in our hazardous material suits in the Louisiana heat, but without getting suited up and going through the procedures we won't know how well we will perform in a real-world scenario," said Staff Sgt. James McGarvey, 2d Civil Engineer Squadron emergency management. "This training is a direct reflection of how we would execute our job for a real-world threat and it gives us confidence in what we do." At the beginning of each situation, the threat was unknown and very little, if any, of the scenario was simulated. This allowed the team to use their specialized emergency response equipment and procedures to identify potential threats. The team worked to identify and quantify the threat, assess any possible health-risks, and create a remediation plan to eliminate the hazard. According to Danielle Turlington, an environmental safety occupational health analyst who served as one of the instructors for the course, the Barksdale teams performed very well during the training exercises and were able to learn from one another. "I feel the participants were able to gain confidence in their strengths and were able to work to improve the weaknesses revealed to them by participation in the challenge," said Capt. Joseph Ball, emergency management and environmental health bioenvironmental engineering officer in charge. "The CBRN Challenge is needed to enhance the emergency response capability of the Bio/EM team. It provides invaluable training to our team to ensure we are ready to meet the demands of a CBRNE emergency," he continued. Bioenvironmental and emergency management teams completion of the four-day exercise has left them well-trained and even more prepared to protect the health of personnel and the mission of Barksdale.