Marine Corps News Release Release #:
Division of Public Affairs, Headquarters, United States Marine Corps, Washington, DC 20380-1775 Commercial: (703) 614-7678/9 DSN: 224-7678/9 FAX: (703)697-5362
Date: 11/15/96 Story by Cpl. Chad E. McMeen, Quantico Sentry
RESPONDING TO TERRORISM: CBIRF COUNTERS CHEMICAL AND BIOLOGICAL TERRORIST THREAT
CUTLINE INFORMATION: 46CBIRF.JPG -- Casualties are decontaminated at a portable site that travels with the CBIRF team. The decon element sets up the site in less than 15 minutes. After decontamination, a casualty can then be taken to medical facilities. (Photo by Cpl. Chad E. McMeen)
MARINE CORPS BASE, Quantico, Va. -- An act of terrorism shocked the world July 27 when a fatal bomb exploded at the Olympic Games in Atlanta. If the bomb had released chemical or biological gases rather than spraying shrapnel on the crowd, a response team would have been prepared to react.
That response team, the Chemical/Biological Incident Response Force, based at Camp Lejeune, N.C., visited here recently to demonstrate their capabilities. The force is designed to counter the growing threat of a terrorist action against the American public.
General Charles C. Krulak stated in his Commandant's Planning Guidance: "There is a need for an organization manned, trained, and equipped to counter the growing biological/chemical terrorism threat. The Marine Corps will have such an organization ... manned with properly skilled and trained personnel ... equipped with state-of-the-art detection, monitoring, and decontamination equipment, suited for operations in a wide range of contingencies."
This is exactly what the 350 Marines and Sailors attached to the 2nd Surveillance, Reconnaissance, and Intelligence Group, do as the strategic CBIRF team.
The unit deploys to incident locations by the most expeditious means possible, where they coordinate initial relief efforts and provide security and area isolation at the affected site. The unit is highly mobile and provides everything from security to medical attention. They then begin detection, identification and decontamination. Expert medical advice is given and assistance to local medical authorities and service support assistance is also available as required.
According to Sgt. Lance M. Bacon, public affairs noncommissioned officer with the unit, all infected personnel must be decontaminated before being placed in a local hospital because of the risk of contaminating others.
This unit is one more way that today's Marine Corps continues to be America's force in readiness. (Cpl. Chad E. McMeen, Quantico Sentry)
