9th WMD Civil Support Team

The area of responsibility of the 9th Weapons of Mass Destruction, Civil Support Team, is Southern california. The unit's mission is to support civil authorities at a domestic CBRNE incident site by identifying CBRNE agents/substances, assessing current and projected consequences, advising on response measures, and assisting with appropriate requests for additional support.

On March 17, 1998, Secretary Cohen announced the creation of 10 Rapid Assessment and Initial Detection (RAID) units to enhance the Defense Department's ability to respond to domestic incidents involving weapons of mass destruction. The WMD program began with the creation of 10 Civil Support Teams (CSTs) - formerly called Military Support Detatchment (MSD) Rapid Assessment Initial Detection (RAID) teams.

The original 10 CSTs were aligned with the ten Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) regions. Each team consists of five sections (i.e., command, administration, communication, medical, and survey) and is manned by twenty-two full time personnel (both ARNG and Air National Guard). The CST's purpose is to enhance the DOD's domestic preparedness and response to terrorist attacks involving WMD.

The 9th WMD CST stood up in January 1999 and was issued new equipment in July at Leonard Wood, MO, where it underwent its first collective training in August.

In February 2000, the unit relocated from Sacramento, CA to Los Alamitos, CA, and underwent an external evaluation by 5th US Armyat Los Alamitos. The following month, it underwent another external evaluation by the California National Guard and Civil Authorities.

The 9th WMD CST provided training support to the Sacramento Police Department during the summer Olympics Pre-trials in July 2000, and in August to the Los Angeles First Responders during the Democratic National Convention. The unit next deployed to Hawaii in December.

January 2001 saw the unit undergo Winter and "Live Agent" training at the Dugway Proving Grounds, UT. It again underwent "Live Agent" training there in May 2001. In August, the unit underwent continuous operations training there and was Officially Certified by the Secretary of Defense on 29 August 2001 . The unit held its certification ceremony on 13 October 2001.

The 9th WMD CST deployed from 2-5 November 2001 to Phoenix, AZ, for the World Series and where it supported the Arizona Department of Public Safety. The Unit was in Pre-game security sweeps and during the game conducted "Active" monitoring for Chemical/ Biological/ Radiological warfare agents.