American Security Today May 2017 Digital Magazine American Security Today May 2017 Digital Magazine | Page 39

Volume 12
(Army Reserve Soldiers and Miami Dade Fire Rescue De-
partment Build Relationships during Joint CBRN Exercise.
Courtesy of RST Info and YouTube)
Sponsored by Department of Defense’s U.S.
Northern Command and hosted by the MDFRD,
the hazardous material exercise was the second
joint-training event between a large municipal-
ity and the Defense CBRN Force, according to
Thomas Frankhouser, a senior survey analyst
with U.S. Army North, based at Fort Sam Hous-
ton, Texas.
Established in 2002, USNORTHCOM’s mission
is to command and control DoD homeland de-
fense efforts and to coordinate defense support
of civil authorities. USNORTHCOM is based at
Peterson Air Force Base, Colorado.
Frankhouser and other ARNORTH staff spent
months planning the exercise with the MDFRD
staff to ensure the best training opportunity for all
organizations involved.
During the event, ARNORTH Observers, Coach/
Trainers closely watched unit personnel as they
integrated into the training and provided guid-
ance for Soldiers and civil authorities.
May 2017 Edition
Army Reserve Warrant Officer Candidate Tod Zellers gives
instructors to Soldiers approaching the decontamination sta-
tion at the Port of Miami during a joint hazard material exer-
cise with the MDFR (Image Credit: Master Sgt. Mark Bell,
Army Reserve)
Frankhouser said, when needed, the 329th
CBRN Company can assist civilian responders
at a scene and provide capabilities that may not
be available for the civilian incident commander.
Like local fire departments and HAZMAT teams,
the 329th CBRN Company has the capability to
identify and analyze certain toxic chemicals and
materials with advanced equipment and can
provide that critical support to an incident com-
mander.
Demron ICE PPE
Miami Dade Fire Rescue Department, MDFRD,
Hazardous Materials Bureau recently conducted
field testing of the Demron Ice suit as a potential
Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) garment
for certain mission specific tasks.
Miami Dade Fire Rescue Department’s Hazard-
ous Materials Bureau at the time had just finished
developing an EBOLA response plan in which
several chemical protective garments were test-
ed for that threat.
One of the garments tested at the time showed
to be promising for both Biological and Chemical
agents since it provided the same capabilities of
a Level A suit.
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