Shaw competes in ACC CBRN competition

Published July 15, 2009
By Senior Airman Kathrine McDowell
20th Fighter Wing Public Affairs

SHAW AIR FORCE BASE, S.C. -- Personnel from the 20th Civil Engineer Squadron emergency management flight and the 20th Aerospace Medical Squadron bioenvironmental section teamed up to compete in a three-day chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear competition.

Evaluators from Air Combat Command Headquarters came to test the Shaw team as part of the ACC CBRN Challenge, a command-wide competition for emergency responders.

From July 14 to 16, the five-person team will undergo a series of five scenarios ranging from industrial accidents to terrorist use of CBRN weapons. Each exercise lasts three hours and is worth 600 hundred points for a possible 3,000 points over the span of the event. The team will earn points on their ability to respond, use specialized equipment and job knowledge.

"CE emergency management and bioenvironmental personnel do the detection, identification and quantification of unknown hazards," said 1st Lt. Michael Salyer, 20th ADOS officer-in-charge, "whether it's biological agents, chemical warfare agents or hazardous materials."

The ACC CBRN Challenge is also the qualifying round for an Air Force-wide competition that will happen next year. After Shaw, the evaluators will score Minot AFB, N.D., and Offutt, Neb., before reporting their findings to ACC Headquarters.