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Biological detection teams depart Fort Benning for Middle East

by Spc. Michelle J. Davis

FORT BENNING, Ga., (Army News Service, Feb. 18, 1998) -- As tension continues to build in the Middle East, a detachment of Fort McClellan, Ala., soldiers along with a small Marine outfit from Camp Lajeune, N.C., flew out of Fort Benning's Lawson Army Airfield Feb. 13 on their way to the Persian Gulf region.

The detachment, composed of less than 50 soldiers from McClellan's 20th Chemical Company, specifically focuses on biological warfare surveillance. The handful of Marines, a slice element of Lajeune's Chemical, Biological Incident Response Force, also specializes in chemical and biological threats.

The Army detachment's primary mission will entail detecting the presence of any biological or chemical agents in an area using the Biological Integrated Detection System, said Capt. Brenda A. Jacinto, detachment commander.

"These soldiers are trained on all chemical detection equipment, but our specialty is biological warfare surveillance and detection," she said. "There is no other unit in the Army like this one."

The BIDS, which has been in use for the past two years, detects changes within the composition of the atmosphere alerting the detachment to the presence of biological agents, said Staff Sgt. Tim Anklam, a detachment team leader.

"There were a lot of lessons learned from the Gulf War," Jacinto said. "I think the system will not only give the soldiers deployed to the Gulf region a feeling of security, but family members back home can feel better as well."

Although Jacinto would rather not come face-to-face with any biological agents, she said it is better to be prepared for the worse- case scenario.

"It would always be better to avoid any contact with agents, but at least with this system we can detect the contaminants and take necessary measures."

Pfc. Carranean Johnson, a chemical, biological specialist, said that she is not worried about the deployment.

"I have total confidence in the people I work with and we have trained specifically for this type of deployment," Johnson said. "I know the BIDS won't let us down."

In order to prepare for missions such as this, the soldiers have completed numerous field training exercises at Dugway Proving Grounds, Utah, during the past months to prepare them for any contingency.

"We've been training for something exactly like this, and I think we're well prepared for the mission ahead," Jacinto said.

The Marine element deployed with a similar mission as the Army, said Marine Staff Sgt. David Grigsby, a member of the Chemical, Biological Incident Response Team.

"We operate independently from the Army, but we have similar capabilities using the same technology," Grigsby said. "We don't want anything to happen either, but we will be prepared."

(Editor's note: Davis is a writer with the Fort Benning public affairs office.)