CHICAGO (05/03/2015)(readMedia)-- Thousands of people gathered at Grant Park in downtown Chicago for the 2015 National Football League Draft from April 30 to May 2. Behind the lights, the vendors, and the regalia of the draft, the Illinois National Guard's 5th Civil Support Team out of Bartonville, Illinois and their partners were on duty, silently protecting the masses from threats.
Working events like this is what the 5th CST does. They are a 22-person, full-time, team comprised of highly trained Soldiers and Airmen that specialize in all aspects of chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, and high-yield explosives and weapons of mass destruction threats. The team is broken into six specialized teams that identify and respond to those threats; a command and control team, a science team, a medical team, a decontamination team, a survey team, and a communications team.
For this event, the CST brought personnel to conduct joint hazard assessment team, or JHAT, patrols. The JHAT teams are comprised of Illinois National Guardsmen an dcivilian partners.
Though the NFL Draft is a major event, it is not necessary for the full complement of the CST to deploy every time explained Capt. Christopher Young of Morton, Illinois, Medical Operations Officer for the 5th CST.
"Though it was a large event, when we're asked to do a JHAT mission, we typically just send the necessary pieces," said Young.
While the CST works with local and national government agencies regularly, for the majority of events, they are requested by the U.S. Department of Energy. Once on site, they provide their expertise and abilities to assist in threat detection and response.
"It's tremendous to have the CST augment us," said Christine Van Horn, Regional Response Coordinator for the National Nuclear Security Administration's Radiological Assistance Program (RAP) 5 of the U.S. Department of Energy. "The RAP community is relatively small; the CST really brings a lot to the table to help our operations."
Chicago Fire District Chief Josh Dennis praised the CST for their abilities.
"The CST brings a technical expertise that we can definitely use," said Dennis. "We work with much of the same equipment, but the CST does it on a daily basis and has a level of familiarity that is unmatched."
CST members train not only to augment with their interagency partners, but to be interchangeable with them, making them a much greater asset in an operation, said Dennis.
Staff Sgt. Maggie Cronin of Peoria Heights, Illinois, a Survey Team Member with the CST stressed the importance of interagency work.
"The good thing about the interagency work is that most of the equipment is the same, so anyone can operate virtually anything that we use," said Cronin
