Bio Defense Teams Lag

Bio Defense Teams Lag

NewsMax.com Wires
Tuesday, Feb. 6, 2001

WASHINGTON (UPI) – The Army is more than a year behind in training, equipping and deploying 10 teams of National Guard soldiers to respond to chemical, biological or nuclear weapons attacks, and the Pentagon has agreed to dismantle the program office in charge of the effort, according to a new report from the Pentagon inspector general.

Three years ago, Congress approved the creation of 10 well-equipped, 22-man teams composed of National Guard soldiers to be first on the scene in the event of a chemical or biological attack. The teams would identify the agent used and advise "first responders" like police and firemen in how to help the victims and prevent further damage.

They were supposed to be deployed around the country by January 2000, strategically placed to be within four hours by air of all the country's large population centers.

In the ensuing years, Congress approved 22 more teams for even better coverage of the country.

But January 2000 came and went, and still no "Weapons of Mass Destruction-Civil Support Teams" were certified as ready for the mission, according to the report. They remain in limbo, stymied by a lack of doctrine, training standards, and a freewheeling approach to acquiring the equipment the teams need to carry out their mission, according to the IG report.

The Army's "Consequence Management Program Integration Office" created to manage the program has set the program back years, according to the report. It did not create a doctrine or training curriculum for the teams, and it assembled a battery of equipment the inspector general says might be dangerous for the teams to use because it has not been tested to operate in an environment "hot" with virus or toxic chemicals.

"Commanders and personnel lack confidence in the unknown, untested and unsubstantiated reliability of the equipment that they were issued," states the report.

The COMPIO even fielded a mask and respirator that were neither designed to work together nor were tested together. Said a commander of one of the "civil support teams": "It would probably work, but I'm not willing to bet my life on it."

The COMPIO also failed to provide an adequate mobile lab for the teams to work in inside a contaminated area. Rather than using an Army combat vehicle to the task, as the Army and the Marine Corps has done with separate military and chemical response teams, the Pentagon office opted to buy Ford vans and jury-rig them with commercial equipment.

Moreover, nine of the 10 teams went through their qualifying examination without ever having worked in the vans, which are central to the teams' mission.

The cost to equip each team now tops $10 million, when the budget for the entire program of at least 32 teams was authorized to be only $18 million.

The Pentagon concurred with the findings and last November began a series of actions to dismantle the office and impose order on the effort.