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American Morning
Georgia Guard Unit Drills For Chemical and Biological Attacks
Aired October 24, 2001 - 10:43 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.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Since those attacks back on 9-11, more than 32,000 military reservists and National Guard troops have been called to active duty. The members of the Georgia National Guard's Fourth Civilian Support Group, they specialize in protecting the public from weapons of mass destruction.
Today they're conducting drills at Atlanta's Turner Field, and that is where we find CNN's Kyra Phillips. Here's Kyra.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Alright, we're here on the Blackhawk helicopter. I'm with the Fourth Weapons of Mass Destruction Civil Support Team. We're coming into a live training scenario right now.
And let me tell you the kind of guys we have on this operation. We've got all special operations guys -- former special operations. Brian, I'm going have you come over here so I can show this gator (ph) over here. This right here is the gator, the military gator that is usually attached to the bottom of the Blackhawk helicopter. This what comes down with the survey team that is in the chopper.
On here comes all the special equipment and the unit when they go into a high-threat situation with a bio or chem threat. They've got the equipment on there to be able to test and tell you what type of threat it is. And the once the helicopter takes off, they get to sample of that (AUDIO GAP
There goes our radio communications. We're now with Major Jeff Allen, everything happening so quickly here.
I was explaining to our viewers what happens as the chopper comes in, brings the gator down. The team egresses -- former special operations, now working within this unit. Tell me a little bit more about the 22 members of your team and how an operation like this goes down.
MAJ. JEFF ALLEN, COMMANDER, AIR NATIONAL GUARD 4th C.S.O. UNIT: We have 22 personnel -- both female and male -- they all come out of different levelties -- different type special ops units throughout the country, throughout the world.
What's going to happen is the m-gator was dropped off. You were dropped off. The crew would exit. They would be dressed out in protective gear. They would make entry into Turner Stadium to do an assessment of exactly what's down range.
PHILLIPS: And that's what the straining scenario is that's going on right now. They're coming in as if a baseball game has been taking place and a serin -- well, you don't know the chemical yet -- but it's going to be a serin chemical.
ALLEN: The scenario is: It's 5 o'clock in the afternoon. There is a ball game scheduled for tonight. Folks are going in to watch batting practice. Terrorists have released a serin agent in one of the receptacles -- trash receptacles. Reports coming back from the hospital where patients are arriving. An organophosphate poisoning, which is endemic of a nerve agent. We've been called in -- we were activated by the governor through the Georgia Emergency Management Agency, the State Adjutant General. Major General Poythress requested that we move to Turner Stadium expeditiously. At 5:00 in the afternoon, if you're from Atlanta, Georgia you're not going to move by a vehicle.
PHILLIPS: And of course we want to let folks know, Major, that we don't want to scare anybody. We want to let people know that this training is going on so they don't need to be afraid of a chemical or biological threat.
ALLEN: That's right. This unit here is -- they're tactically, tactically proficient. They work with bios -- live bio and chem agents for the last three years. These units were developed under the directive of President Clinton during his term. He read a book called "The Cobra Event." He started asking his cabinet if we had any teams out there that could handle a release of a chemical or biological weapon.
The answer was no, there was nobody out there. There's -- there's 10 of these teams in the country right now. There's 17 more that are being stood up as we speak.
PHILLIPS: Major Jeff Allen, thanks so much. And we're going to continue to follow the National Guard's Weapons of Mass Destruction Civil Support Team in this training scenario and tell you how these soldiers are making life a little more -- less scary for all of us. Back to you.
HEMMER: Alright, Kyra, thank you. The intrepid one, Kyra Phillips here in the city of Atlanta.
There have been numerous questions about preparation. And we have heard it from a number officials in Washington. There you see, though, in plain sight the preparations and readiness still under way on this day.
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