General Resources

WMD-CST Fact Sheet, created by 103rd WMD-CST, AK

NGB Homeland Security Task Force list of bioterrorism and other cbrne and homeland security documents

Management of National Guard Weapons of Mass Destruction-Civil Support Teams, Office of the Inspector General, Department of Defense Audit Report No. D-2001-043 January 31, 2001
(PDF version)

Joint Task Force Civil Support (JTF-CS), NORTHCOM component

The mission of JTF-CS is to provide command and control for Department of Defense (DoD) forces deployed in support of the lead federal agency (LFA) managing the consequences of a chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear or high-yield explosive (CBRNE) incident in the United States, its territories and possessions in order to save lives, prevent injury and provide temporary critical life support.

Weapons of Mass Destruction Civil Support Teams (WMD-CST)

According to Chapter 7 of 2001 DoD Annual Report to the President and the Congress, "Their mission will be to deploy rapidly, assist local first responders in determining the precise nature of an incident, provide expert medical and technical advice, and help pave the way for the identification and arrival of follow-on military support. Unless federalized, the CSTs will remain state National Guard assets that can be quickly accessed by proximate governors."
See Factsheet and additional info

Weapons of Mass Destruction: Civil Support Teams - summary at Center for Army Lessons Learned, from NFTF Nov-Dec 2001, Chapter 1

The CST mission is to assess a suspected WMD attack, advise civilian responders on appropriate actions, and facilitate the arrival of additional state and Federal military forces. Each team consists of 22 full-time Army and Air National Guardsmen and is broken down into six smaller teams -- command, operations, communications, administration and logistics, medical, and survey -- that have been trained and equipped to provide a technical capability to "reach back" to other experts who can assist the incident commander. In essence, these "scouts" are a unique military capability. They can deploy rapidly to a suspected or actual terrorist attack, conduct special reconnaissance to determine the effects of the attack, provide situational understanding to military command channels and technical consultation to local authorities on managing the effects of the attack to minimize the impact on the civilian population, and facilitate follow-on military support performing validated civilian requests for assistance.

Unified Command Suite (UCS)

highly mobile, fielded communications system employed in support of the Weapons of Mass Destruction Civil Support Teams (CSTs). The UCS provides real-time voice, data, and video connectivity (classified and unclassified) between CST members, local and state emergency response agencies, lead federal agencies and supporting military activities. . The UCS operates in both urban and undeveloped areas, using portable and fixed equipment. The UCS consists of a combination of standard commercial and existing military equipment to provide the full range of communications necessary to support the CST mission

DoD WMD-CST homepage

GlobalSecurity.org's WMD-CST page, includes list of the non-federal state WMD-CST teams

News article about the 2nd WMD-CST, with photos

Preparing the U.S. Army for Homeland Security: Concepts, Issues, and Options, a RAND publication

• Appendix B - A Notional WMD CST Trade-Off Analysis, comparing CSTs with city hazmat teams and various DoD response teams

Sources for Training

See also Education page


See Incident Command System (ICS) courses, including minimum requirements

FEMA

• FEMA's Training Resources Portal Page
• National Emergency Training Center (NETC) Virtual Campus
• Emergency Management Institute (EMI)
  • Basic Incident Command System (ICS)
• National Fire Academy

U.S. Army Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear School

Army Medical Department — AMEDD

U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID)

Office for Domestic Preparedness (ODP) Training

U.S. Army Soldier and Biological Chemical Command (SBCCOM) became (effective 9 October 2003)

• RDECOM - Research, Development and Engineering Command - "responsible for rapidly integrating, maturing and demonstrating all emerging technologies to field the right equipment, in the shortest time" (from Robert Morris Acquisition Center (RMAC) briefing)
• CMA - Chemical Materials Agency (CMA) - "responsibility of combining all chemical weapons stockpile and non-stockpile programs into a single agency under AMC" (from RMAC briefing)
• Guardian Brigade - "includes the US Army Technical Escort Unit (TEU), the Chemical Biological Rapid Response Team (CBRRT), the Army Reserve Unit (ARU), and other elements. The brigade will be a rapidly deployable, WMD-specific organization able to simultaneously support two Combatant Commanders and Homeland Response requirements" (from RMAC briefing)
• Joint Program Executive Office for Chemical and Biological Defense
• SSC - Soldiers System Center - "is responsible for researching, developing, fielding, and managing food, clothing, shelters, airdrop systems, and soldier support items"

EPA

• EPA Emergency Management
• National Response Team
• Environmental Response Team (ERT)

OSHA Training Institute and Education Centers

U.S. Public Health Service Noble Training Center, Ft. McClellan, AL

Noble Training Center is unique in that it is the only hospital facility in the U.S. devoted entirely to medical training for Weapons of Mass Destruction. It is also co-located at Ft.McClellan with the Center for Domestic Preparedness operated by the Department of Justice and which provides training courses for first responders and others. Also operated by the Center for Domestic Preparedness is a live chemical agent training facility where students wearing protective clothing and masks work in an area where sarin and VX nerve agents are released under stringently controlled conditions. It is the only facility of its type in the nation for civilian training.

Air Force Civil Engineer Support Agency (AFCESA)

Lessons Learned

See AWC Gateway to Lessons Learned especially WMD Lessons and Lessons for Responders

Team Hears 'We've Been Waiting for You' When Public Safety's at Risk -- 2nd CST (with photos)

The team brings unique capabilities to local first responders, and they have been called at least 38 times since Sept. 11 .... They've worked with New York City emergency management agencies to ensure public safety at such events as the New York City marathon, and the American League playoff and World Series games at Yankee Stadium last year.

from the Center for Army Lessons Learned

"Civil Support Team in Action," TQ 3-02, by Borel
Lessons Learned from the Deployment of the 2nd Civil Support Team (CST), New York National Guard (NYNG), in Response to the World Trade Center Attack on September 11, 2001

"Lessons in Planning for a terrorist attack on the Super Bowl," TQ 4-02

by the 62nd Weapons of Mass Destruction – Civil Support Team, Louisiana National Guard (WMD-CST, LANG)

State, Regional, and Federal Contacts

See State Guard pages below

List of State Adjutants General, posted by the Adjutants General Association

Homeland Security State Contact List, posted by Department of Homeland Security

Search for a state homeland security web page - replace Alabama with the state you're seeking - often more current than above DHS site

U.S. Fire Administration (USFA) State Points of Contact

State Emergency Management Web Sites, listed on Oregon Emergency Management site

State Emergency Management Offices, listed by FEMA

FEMA regions, each of the ten had one of the original ten WMD-CSTs (originally called RAID teams)

Active, Guard & Reserve Service Home Pages


State Health Department Websites, listed by CDC

State Guard Pages

State Guard pages - listed by NGB

In the table below we have tried to find a combined air & army page for each state.
See also the Adjutants General and state contacts for homeland security and emergencies.


Alabama Alaska Arizona (Army) Arkansas California Colorado Connecticut Delaware D.C. Florida Georgia Guam (unoff.) Hawaii Idaho

Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Maine Maryland Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota Mississippi Missouri

Montana Nebraska Nevada New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico New York North Carolina North Dakota Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania

Puerto Rico Rhode Island South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Vermont Virginia US Virgin Islands Washington West Virginia Wisconsin Wyoming

Federal WMD-CST Teams

WMD-CST Fact Sheet, created by 103rd WMD-CST, AK

The National Defense Authorization Act for 2003 called for a total of 55 CSTs, ensuring that there would be at least one team in "each of the several States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Virgin Islands."

Team	State	Location	Estab.*	Certified
1st	Massachusetts	Natick	FY99	15 Aug 01
2nd	New York	Scotia	FY99	26 Jul 01
3rd	Pennsylvania	Annville	FY99	29 Aug 01
4th	Georgia	Dobbins ARB	FY99	17 Oct 01
5th	Illinois	Bartonville	FY99	29 Aug 01
6th	Texas	Austin	FY99	15 Aug 01
7th	Missouri	Ft Leonard Wood	FY99	14 Aug 01
8th	Colorado	Aurora	FY99	26 Jul 01
9th	California-South	Los Alamitos	FY99	29 Aug 01
10th	Washington	Tacoma	FY99	26 Jul 01
.	.	.	.	.
103rd	Alaska	Ft Richardson	FY00	12 Mar 02
61st	Arkansas	Little Rock	FY00	28 Jan 02
91st	Arizona	Phoenix	FY00	11 Jan 02
95th	California - North	Hayward	FY00	28 Jan 02
44th	Florida	Stark	FY00	28 Jan 02
93rd	Hawaii	Honolulu	FY00	30 Apr 02
71st	Iowa	Johnston	FY00	28 Jan 02
101st	Idaho	Boise	FY00	11 Jan 02
41st	Kentucky	Louisville	FY00	11 Jan 02
62nd	Louisiana	Carville	FY00	17 Dec 01
11th	Maine	Waterville	FY00	15 Jan 02
55th	Minnesota	St Paul	FY00	17 Dec 01
64th	New Mexico	Santa Fe	FY00	28 Jan 02
52nd	Ohio	Columbus	FY00	26 Feb 02
63rd	Oklahoma	Oklahoma City	FY00	28 Jan 02
43rd	South Carolina	Eastover	FY00	11 Jan 02
34th	Virginia	Blackstone	FY00	28 Jan 02
.	.	.	.	.
46th	Alabama	Montgomery	FY01	06 Mar 03
73rd	Kansas	Topeka	FY01	14 Mar 03
51st	Michigan	Augusta	FY01	05 Feb 03
45th	Tennessee	Smyrna	FY01	05 Feb 03
35th	West Virginia	St. Albans	FY01	05 Feb 03
.	.	.	.	.
14th	Connecticut	Windsorlock	FY04	24 Jul 06
21st	New Jersey	Fort Dix	FY04	28 Nov 05
42nd	North Carolina	Greenville	FY04	24 Jul 06
53rd	Indiana	Indianapolis	FY04	28 Nov 05
54th	Wisconsin	Madison	FY04	8 Feb 06
32nd	Maryland	Fort Meade	FY04	21 Sep 06
102nd	Oregon	Salem	FY04	24 Jul 06
47th	Mississippi	Jackson	FY04	21 Sep 06
85th	Utah	Lehi	FY04	30 May 07
92nd	Nevada	Las Vegas	FY04	30 May 07
72nd	Nebraska	Lincoln	FY04	8 Feb 06
13th	Rhode Island	Coventry	FY04	24 Jul 06
.	.	.	.	.
33rd	D.C.	D.C.	FY05	6 Apr 07
31st	Delaware	Smyrna	FY05	1 Feb 07
94th	Guam	Juan Muna	FY05	N/A
83rd	Montana	Helena	FY05	1 Feb 07
81st	North Dakota	Bismarck	FY05	1 Feb 07
12th	New Hampshire	Concord	FY05	1 Feb 07
22nd	Puerto Rico	Fort Buchanan	FY05	18 Dec 07
82nd	South Dakota	Rapid City	FY05	13 Jul 07
23rd	U.S. Virgin Islands	St. Croix	FY05	N/A
15th	Vermont	South Burlington	FY05	1 Feb 07
84th	Wyoming	Cheyenne	FY05	14 Mar 07

* Estab. = the year Congress approved the establishment of that unit.