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American Morning

How the U.S. Military Detects Invisible Threats

Aired October 19, 2001 - 11:46   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Let's keep it on anthrax, which is, of course, an invisible weapon. You can't see it, you can't smell it or hear it coming. But the U.S. military does have a quick way to detect it, also a host of other threats.

And our Brian Nelson is at Grant Forks Air Force Base -- that's in North Dakota -- to give us a demonstration of some of these tools.

Brian, hello.

BRIAN NELSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Daryn.

Yes, we're here to see how the U.S. military might respond if it does receive an attack or a threat which is either chemical, biological or otherwise and how it might then be able to carry out its duties to defend the country.

And so let's turn around here and talk to Tim, who is with the U.S. Air Force civil engineering here at the base. And he's got three kits which are pretty interesting.

And you're going to tell us about them, but first you want to tell us what you do.

TIM: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) readiness. I'd just like start out, the Air Force is ready, trained and equipped to respond to any chemical, biological or radiological incident.

NELSON: So tell us about the three kits, would you, Tim, that you have here.

TIM: Start with the biological kit. First we take the suspected are and agent and we talk our cotton tip applicator, dip it in our buffer solution, swipe the area. Dip it a few more times, agitate the solution. Put three to four drops in each of these eight compartments, which test for eight different biological agents. And at that point we either get a positive or a negative test. And we follow that up with a second test to verify our results.

NELSON: OK, now, Keith (sic), does this include anthrax?

TIM: I cannot comment on the specific agents this tests for, as they are classified.

NELSON: OK, it's classified, but I think it's safe to assume that this probably does.

Now, what about in the event of chemical attack?

TIM: One of our chemical detectors is right here. This is -- the real-world kit is not open -- this is our training kit. This test for chemical vapors or vapors coming off of chemical liquids.

NELSON: What's it got in it?

TIM: Well, it tests for nerve, blood and blister agents. And it has these compartments here. And when these are crushed, they react with the chemical in the air to put a discoloration or no color at all to indicate what kind of agent it is. It's similar to how a bloodhound can match a person's scent to an article of clothing.

NELSON: So for a chemical threat like that, would sarin gas be a possibility? Is that a nerve agent?

TIM: Sarin gas is a possibility.

NELSON: But you can't tell me...

TIM: I cannot tell you yes.

NELSON: OK, great.

Now, the final one is radiological. Tell me about this one. It's a much bigger kit.

TIM: Yes, this is our radiological kit. It has three attachments to the central unit. And it tests for alpha and beta particles and gamma and X radiation. It's -- a good analogy for that would be how a metal detector would detect a piece of metal in the sand.

NELSON: Just a mobile Geiger counter, right?

TIM: It's mobile; it's an advanced version of that, of course.

NELSON: Let's go back to this one, the biological test for just a minute. It's very much similar to a pregnancy test, if I can make the analogy. How long does it take to get the result?

TIM: In the field we can get results within 30 minutes, but most of the time it's a lot quicker than that.

NELSON: OK, thank you very much, Tim -- we can't give your last name. But the men and women of the military, and particularly here in the Air Force, hope that there are no such threats. But as Tim just said, if there are, they're repaired.

Daryn, let's go back to you.

KAGAN: Some neat stuff. Thanks for showing that to us. We thank the folks at Grand Forks as well. Brian Nelson, appreciate it.

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