Army Chemical Review presents professional information about Chemical Corps functions related to chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, smoke, flame, and civil support operations.
Issue link: https://chemical.epubxp.com/i/759309
Army Chemical Review
26
complex, and commanders may loathe adding another re-
quirement to training scenarios already clouded with tactics,
techniques, and procedures; standard operating procedures;
and tertiary objectives. Serious thought and emphasis needs
to be put into identifying and propagating practical tech-
niques for avoiding contamination in urban environments.
Taking advantage of containment techniques and materials
that are readily available for decontamination could have
helped provide solutions for several of these events. CBRN
subject matter experts must ensure that they are also taking
a holistic view of threats and hazards. Responding to near
and far threats from all directions improves survivability.
In order to do this, non-CBRN Soldiers need to be educated
in all types of threats and hasty protective measures that
arise in MOUT scenarios. The days of large, air-bursting
munitions that slowly drift toward friendly lines are gone.
Modern threats are small, surgical releases that emphasize
tactical advantages and rely on surprise and subterfuge.
8
Al-
though the defense community needs to take a hard look at
how CBRN scenarios are incorporated into training, it is not
alone. However, several of the attacks on civilian popula-
tions indicate that first responders also presented with the
same symptoms as the victims. The same patterns of missed
indicators and a lack of mitigation efforts were present in
these incidents, as well as those found in the military forces.
9
The civilian populace should expect more confusion and dis-
order than military units; however, these attacks occurred
after other documented attacks. There should be discussions
among incident response professionals in this country about
how to educate the public on indicators of chemical attacks.
Furthermore, there is the problem of the first responders
not recognizing the risks to themselves. While it may be
suspected that Syrian emergency services are less equipped
with personal protective equipment, emergency response
planners in the United States need to heed this warning and
reinventory their organizations. Emergency response plan-
ners should ensure that they have applicable training in
threat recognition and the appropriate equipment for dedi-
cated hazmat units and first responders.
While military and civilian responders should ponder
these discussion points, the reports provide concrete evi-
dence of forensic sampling. UN mission sampling and in-
terview techniques, standard operating procedures, and
analysis resources are extremely well documented.
10
While
positive environmental samples were obtained, their re-
liability was difficult to ascertain due to the disruption of
sites before the sampling teams could access them. Biomedi-
cal sampling of alleged victims provided the most consistent
evidence-gathering technique, especially when coupled with
eye witnesses. The reports also cite the professionalism and
quality of training that technicians had received as key fac-
tors in gathering solid evidence. A strict chain of custody
was also followed. It is clear that, at the technician level, a
large array of skills and situational awareness are neces-
sary to extract the usable data. The highly technical world of
CBRN forensics calls for individuals with highly specialized
knowledge and a unique set of skills. It is imperative that
they use their experience and knowledge to prioritize evi-
dence and link it together. This ability contributed greatly to
the success of the UN mission and serves as a great teaching
point for the CBRN forensics community.
The tragedies of the Syrian civil war must be considered
by the modern defense community as an example by which
our CBRN defense techniques can be evaluated. Since the
introduction of chemical weapons on the battlefield, we have
seen few uses with which to compare our modern supposi-
tions. This scarcity of examples must not be used to fuel
complacency. Nearly every military process or system calls
for continuous assessment and perhaps none more so than
CBRN tactics, techniques, and procedures. In the introduc-
tion of the anthology, War in the Age of Technology: Myriad
Faces of Modern , the authors observe that
"modern technology has made armies, wars, and their effects
increasingly complicated and unpredictable . . ."
11
Perhaps
the CBRN community can use these historical examples to
remove some of the unpredictability.
Endnotes:
1
"United Nations Mission to Investigate Allegations of the
Use of Chemical Weapons in the Syrian Arab Republic," Final
Report, 13 December 2013,