Ever work at Edgewood Arsenal?
@Cripplecreek No...lol. During my two years at Hahn AB (77-78), I was one of two officers in my battery with a TS clearance. That meant during AF alerts/tac evals, I'd be down in the Wing CP for the duration as the Army Liasion Officer (the other officer was my CO, he had more important things to do).
30 minutes into my first trip to the Wing CP, a NATO evaluator dropped an NBC input. It was laughable: Ramstein was hit with a nonpersistent nerve agent. I was in the "Eagles Nest", briefing the Wing Cdr on the location of our weapons systems. Each base has a Disaster Preparedness Officer, a Captain, whose job is to be an expert on NBC threats. He overreacted, recommending Alarm Red, i.e. full gas mask and protective gear for everyone on base.
So there I was, an Army 2nd LT, surrounded by AF colonels, incredulous at this overreaction. I figured "WTH", and spoke up: Colonel may I make a recommendation? Dead silence, lol. The Wing Cdr was a graduate of West Point, so he had a much higher regard for Army officers than most everyone there. He said, "go ahead LT".
I recommended Alarm Yellow (no mask/protective gear) for three reasons:
1. Ramstein was 60+ miles southeast, and the winds were westerly.
2. It was a nonpersistent nerve agent, sure to disperse within a short time period.
3. It was raining like hell outside, Russians wasted a lot of agent for nothing.
Wing Cdr said "I like that, let's go Alarm Yellow", as the NATO Team Chief was nodding his head in approval. 15 minutes later, I hear his voice boom out, "as long as I'm in command, I want that Army LT up here for every future NBC input."
Later that day, he came down and asked me, "how'd you know that?" I told him I was my unit's NBC officer, an extra duty. It was one of the better "extra duties" to have: got a week's worth of training in Vilseck, i.e. a week off. Later, when I was kicked up to Battalion HQ, I took on that duty for the battalion, and got a week at the NATO school...in Oberammergau.
As I recall, that was the only NBC input during that tac eval. My soldiers must have put on a dog and pony show when the evaluators checked them out. During the outbriefing, it was said that the Army unit (us) added significantly to the Base Survivability Rating.
