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Airman's packaging idea cuts hazmat response time

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Don Branum
  • 332nd Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs
JOINT BASE BALAD, Iraq --  One Airman's initiative has cut the response times for hazardous material teams from hours to minutes, and his supervisors want civil engineer units throughout the Air Force to adopt the idea.

Senior Airman Michael Blair, an emergency management equipment technician with the 332nd Expeditionary Civil Engineer Squadron's Emergency Management Flight, packed the flight's frequently used tools into a single 12-cubic-foot box, a large reduction from the flight's previous four-case response package.

"During training, we were taking three or four different cases in at a time," said Airman Blair, who is deployed here from the New Jersey Air National Guard's 514th Civil Engineer Squadron at McGuire Air Force Base, N.J. "It was annoying, heavy, and sometimes it took more than one group to go in just for something pretty simple. So after numerous training exercises, I said, 'We usually go in with these pieces of equipment, why not just put them all in one box.' It limits how many times people have to go in, and it's pretty easy to wheel around."

Many bases receive the same hazmat response equipment in separate kits, said Master Sgt. Robert Genova, the 332nd ECES' Emergency Management Flight chief.

"The thought process (behind consolidating the kits) has been there for a while, but to be able to actually apply it in an expeditionary environment ... we've been able to hone the procedures" used for hazmat response, Sergeant Genova said.

The single response kit contains the detection, sampling, monitoring and identification equipment that 332nd ECES EMF Airmen use for most of their responses. Excluded are tools the flight usually doesn't need.

Other bases in Iraq will learn the same emergency response tactics using the same equipment configurations, said Master Sgt. Michael Messina, the outgoing flight chief who will soon return to his home-station assignment at the Air Force Civil Engineer Support Agency at Tyndall AFB, Fla. AFCESA offers tools, practices and professional support to maximize Air Force civil engineer capabilities in base and contingency operations.

"We hosted a class for the other Air Force bases in Iraq to come over and learn the same tactics to the same level," Sergeant Messina said. "Since then, every one of those bases and some other bases in the (area of responsibility) have taken his idea and enhanced it or at least duplicated it. So what he's done ... has significantly changed some of our tactics and allowed the base to return to operational status more quickly."

Using one response kit instead of three or four has cut the flight's response time by more than 75 percent, Sergeant Messina said.

"Instead of others waiting for us to respond, we are now responding and waiting for others," he added.

Another factor in the reduced response time is a change in the flight's posture, which is possible because of Airman Blair's initiative.

"We have the equipment in ready-hot status versus a cold or warm status. We're ready to respond at a moment's notice; that's a monumental change in just the mentality for flights."

The change in mentality means that response teams are ready to enter the "hot zone" -- the scene of a hazmat incident -- almost as soon as they arrive. Airman Blair's initiative has allowed the flight to change their tactics, techniques and procedures. Sergeant Messina said he plans to advocate the new tactics when he returns to AFCESA.

"This is something we need to pursue Air Force wide," he said. "What's great about it is that it's not something that's going to take 10 years to develop. It's an idea where you say, 'Everybody, get a case and put it together and modify it to meet your threats and your needs.' It's just a matter of taking that idea, that concept of operations, and applying it across the total force."