Story and photo by R.J. Oriez
GUIDON staff

The people at the Chemical Defense Training Facility had some questions about their training aids munitions.

“We didn’t know the history behind the rounds and that was important,” said Daniel Murray, facility director. “Over the past 10 years, training aids munitions have changed with regard to how they are made. If something had been demilitarized, the processes there had changed. These were prior to those changes.

“So, we have some old, Army-manufactured, inert, training aids that do not correspond to current demil processes,” Murray said. “It begs the question if we can prove that these have, in fact, been properly demilled.”

Fortunately, a bright side was found to the situation.

“We have created an opportunity for a tech escort training mission,” Murray said. “It just kind of worked out that we could get the 110th (Chemical Battalion) out here and put them through a worthwhile training mission and, at the same time, give us the documentation we think we might need.”

The 110th Chem. Bn., based out of Fort Lewis, Wash., has the mission of rapidly deploying chemical escort teams.

“It’s one of the unique missions of this team is that we can assess chemical rounds,” said Capt. Patrick Bradley, Tech Escort Team 1 Bravo leader, B Co. “We have EOD (Explosive Ordnance Disposal) personnel and chemical Soldiers. One of our jobs is to assess and escort chemical munitions.”

The opportunity to help out CDTF fill in the gap in their training aids’ paperwork also gave the 110th the chance to drill their rapid response.

“Since we are a reactive deployment unit, using that as an exercise to actually deploy is really beneficial for the team,” Bradley said. “And, deploying to Fort Leonard Wood, pretty much we’re at the chemical school house, is another plus.”

The first step of assessing a round is looking at it.

“Our EOD tech will measure the round, get a description of what the round looks like, weigh it and take his measurements,” Bradley said. “These are all different ways of identifying what these rounds could possibly be.”

They also look for any type of nomenclature on the round.

After taking a good look at the outside of the round, Bradley says they take a look at the inside. Though, since they are chemical Soldiers, it is not as easy as unscrewing a cap.

“What we are doing here is an extrusive assessment,” Bradley said. “We’re not entering the round.”

So, to take a look inside, they x-ray it. Bradley says they are looking for a fill level.

“Pretty much like you would in a glass of water, there’d be a little level in there that would identify there is a liquid in there,” Bradley said. Another thing they look for is a burster tube, something that is designed to open the round and disperse the agent.

Knowing that there is something inside is not the same as knowing what is inside. That is the job of the Portable Isotropic Neutron Spectroscopy.

“We shoot a neutron source into the round,” Bradley said. “When neutron radiation gets in contact with something it emits gamma radiation.”

Different material will cause it to emit different types of gamma rays.

“Whatever kind of chemical it hits, it’ll put out a different type of radiation.” Bradley said. “That radiation is then going to be read by the PINS. We will get a spectrum and an understanding of what’s inside of that round.”

In the case of CDTF’s 14 training rounds, they were filled with concrete. But, now, Murray and the training facility have the proper paperwork to prove it.