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SPIEZ, Switzerland — Soldiers of the 773rd Civil Support Team, 7th Civil Support Command, 21st Theater Sustainment Command, demonstrated their chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear response capabilities to representatives from more than 25 different nations during the 18-year anniversary of the Swiss’ Chemical and Biological Medical Treatment Symposia held here May 7 to 9.
The symposia was organized to bring together professionals most concerned with the scientific, technical and policy aspects of problems associated with chemical, biological, radiological, or nuclear and weapons-of-mass-destruction threats.
“This is one of the premier gatherings in the world in the areas of CBRN defense and consequence management,” said Army Brig. Gen. Mark Hendrix, commanding general of the 7th CSC. “There are experts here from around the world in the fields of science, medicine and policy, gathered to exchange ideas, information, new emerging technologies and thoughts on the way ahead.”
During the three-day symposia, the 773rd’s 12-Soldier contingent put various tools and CBRN equipment that they use, on display for attendees to see. Soldiers explained and described the capabilities and demonstrated the use of the displayed items to inquiring symposia visitors.
“We’re doing a static display for the Swiss Spiez Laboratory,” said Army Staff Sgt. Timothy Butler, the survey team chief for the 773rd CST. “We have our equipment from the unit on display to show our capabilities and what we do.”
“Coming down here and showing our equipment and showing our expertise makes me feel good about what I do and makes me feel proud of who I am and what my purpose is,” Butler said.
In addition to the equipment, the 773rd also put on display their Analytical Laboratory System. The ALS vehicle is a C-130 Hercules air transportable system that uses both commercial off-the-shelf and government off-the-shelf equipment to analyze chemical warfare agents, toxic industrial materials, toxic industrial chemicals and biological warfare agents.
The ALS is capable of establishing communications through a mobile communications system to local, state and federal laboratories and other
agencies for analysis and presumptive identification of suspect agents.
On the final day of the symposia, Soldiers performed a full-dress demonstration of how they respond to a suspected chemical threat, showing the symposia attendees their attention to detail and tactics of handling potentially harmful substances.
“We are very involved in this symposium. We’ve had presentations from members of the 773rd CST about their unit’s mission and capabilities, the mobile lab and chemical and biological casualty treatment protocols,” Hendrix said. “The Swiss were very grateful to have our participation.”
Hendrix said there are two reasons for the 773rd CST to work with its Swiss counterparts.
“One reason it is important for us to work with our Swiss counterparts is so that we can exchange techniques and learn from each other. But then the other thing is that in the field of consequence management many countries have a robust capability, but depending on the scale of an event, they can quickly find themselves overwhelmed,” Hendrix said.
“This symposium has been great for us in so many ways. We’ve learned a lot as far as information ideas, techniques and technologies, and we’ve had a chance to showcase our unit and our Soldiers,” Hendrix said.
“These Soldiers are first responders, they are folks who do what those New York City firefighters did on 9/11, they run into a danger that everyone else is running away from,” Hendrix said. “It’s a real privilege to be here and a privilege to represent the 21st TSC, the U.S. Army in Europe and the European Command.”
