ROLLA, Mo. - Organization, communication and teamwork were the keys to success for the Missouri National Guard's 7th Weapons of Mass Destruction-Civil Support Team (WMD-CST) as it earned its validation from U.S. Army North assessors recently during an external evaluation exercise today.
"The U.S. Army North evaluators commented on how well organized the team was," said Air Guard Lt. Col. Raymond White, the 7th's commander.
"We implemented a new strategy where we set up our tactical operations center in between our operations section and reconnaissance section.
Having it there provides a central command post so that all members of the team can come together to examine the situation and provide input to meeting the unit's objectives."
The WMD-CSTs support local, state, and federal civil authorities in the event of an incident involving weapons of mass destruction or significant loss of life or property damage in the United States.
Each team consists of 22 highly-skilled, Title 32, full-time Active Guard and Reserve (AGR) members of the Army and Air National Guard who are federally resourced, trained and evaluated, but aligned under the command and control of the state governors. The team is organized into six sections: command, operations, admin and logistics, medical, communications and survey.
U.S. Army North declared the unit fully-trained in all mission training plan areas.
"This just validates all the training that the team has done and continues to do on a day-to-day basis in preparation for real-world emergencies," said White.
White credited the unit's reconnaissance team a job well done. Two of its senior NCOs – Sgt. 1st Class Juan Gallego and Staff Sgt. Robyn Boatright – were awarded the U.S. Army North, 5th Army general's coin of excellence.
Gallego, the NCO-in-charge of recon, and Boatright, a recon team chief, both considered the coins unit honors. Upon receiving his coin, Gallego took it directly to the unit's trophy case and placed it inside.
"It wasn't just me being praised, it's the whole unit," said Gallego, who has been with the unit since 2002.
Boatright was praised for her work on the radio, helping relay communications between the entry team and the tactical operations center, as well as her work during an entry into the threat zone.
The medical staff received high marks for its sample preparation and ability to respond in the man-down scenario.
"We followed our standard operating procedures and our standard text manual for sample preparation and analysis," said Staff Sgt. Jason Allabaugh, the team's medical NCO. "We had some good communication on the man-down scenario and we already knew prior what our roles were."