Defense & Security News - USA
 
Czech, Slovakia and US Military conducts combined exercise including reactions to CBRN threats
Members of the Indiana National Guard work alongside Allies and active duty members to improve their skills in reacting to a Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear response, and search and rescue techniques during Toxic Lance at Training Center Lest from March 20-23, 2017.
     
Members of the Indiana National Guard work alongside Allies and active duty members to improve their skills in reacting to a Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear response, and search and rescue techniques during Toxic Lance at Training Center Lest from March 20-23, 2017.
A Slovakian Soldier undergoes the decontamination process (credit Sgt. Justin Geiger/US Army)
     
Toxic Lance, a two-week-long exercise that incorporated CBRN assets from Slovakia, Czech Republic, Indiana National Guard and active duty members of the 588th Brigade Engineer Battalion, 3rd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, highlighted the bonds created through the state partnership program. The soldiers and airmen from all three countries integrated their specialties into multiple scenarios that required them to work together for a common solution in response to a CBRN threat that included search and rescue efforts.

A reconnaissance section from 588th BEB provided its expertise to the exercise with unique equipment capable of searching and testing a site for contaminates. The Indiana National Guard team is complimented with a search and rescue capability that is integrated into its decontamination unit. “This is the first time we have integrated a reconnaissance element, our Stryker vehicles, into a decontamination effort,” said Lt. Col. George A. Mitroka, 588th Brigade Engineer Battalion Commander. “It was really neat to see how the Indiana National Guard used the Strykers, used the recon team that we have in 3rd Brigade to look for other contaminations in the atmosphere while the decontamination mission was going on.”

The state partnership program links a state’s National Guard with equivalent forces of a partnered country. The program, implemented in 1991 and included only 3 countries in the Baltics, now spans the globe and incorporates 79 nations. Operation Atlantic Resolve, a U.S. commitment to a persistent presence throughout Europe, provided the opportunity for members of the 588th BEB to further enhance the relationships that have been established through SPP and the Indian National Guard’s continued efforts in the region.