In a Post 9-11 WMD Environment
The world is changing, becoming smaller and more dangerous it seems, and the events of September 11th, 2001, brought a distinct reality crashing down around us. The reality was that we could be hit on the home front, after all. The enemy determined to do so harbors zero concern for the “rules of war” and will stop at nothing to inflict the greatest amount of carnage and casualties possible. As the government and Department of Defense has worked to adapt and respond, there is one Army occupational specialty that has become increasingly relevant. That Army unit is known as Technical Escort (TE). In today’s age, our public officials and military commanders need rapid, real-time surety and assessments of suspected weapons of mass destruction (WMD), toxic and/or poisonous waste, and special material facilities affected by natural disaster. As the battlefield grows ever more asymmetrical, the capabilities TE units can provide will continually become more valuable and pertinent to our nation’s WMD defense. During most of the 20th century, the possibility of an attack on American soil involving WMD seemed unlikely to a majority of United States (U.S.) citizens. Nearly all major conflicts took place a great distance from the continental U.S., with the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor being the closest exception geographically. The view that the public, and in large part the armed forces, had of any WMD threat hovered somewhere between ignorance and skepticism. Aside from the Cuban Missile Crisis in the 1960s, most of the country felt safeguarded against any category of de...
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...nues to train our best CBRN Soldiers to meet the challenges of tomorrow with confidence and professional expertise.
References
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Porteus-Viana, Liza (2012, May 14 ). Guards WMD CST can respond faster than other federal
During Desert Shield and Desert Storm, European Command (EUCOM) air defense units from 32d Air Defense Command deployed with the mission to provide security for the back door of Iraq from locations in Israel and Turkey. (Global Security) The threat the US and coalition forces faced was Sadaam Hussein’s chemical weapons arsenal. Intelligence suggested that Iraqi Forces filled both chemical and biological payloads to the Scud missiles. (Rostker) The concern was if a warhead would explode, it would release airborne agents on the US and coalition forces. US Commanders had additional concerns. Could Patriot engage the warheads successfully? Patriot capabilities were not for the purpose of the mi...
One of the biggest fears of the American people is that the concept of communism contrasts drastically from the concept of capitalism, which the United States was essentially founded upon. The United States, as the public believed, was not a land of perfect communal equality, but rather a land of equal opportunity. However, what made communism so dangerous can be succinctly described by Eisenhower who compared the spread of communism as the domino effect. As his secretary of state, Dulles, put it, the propagation of communism “would constitute a threat to the sovereignty and independence” of America (Doc B). In addition, the Cold War also planted the seeds of rational fear of a global nuclear war. As Russia caught up to the United States in terms of technological advancements, they successfully developed the atomic bomb as well as the hydrogen bomb, which caused Americans to believe that the USSR would use these weapons of mass destruction to forcefully extend their ideologies to the USA. In fact, Americans were so frantic about a potential nuclear disaster that it...
I have organized this paper into five distinct sections; mission, task organization, capabilities, limitations, and finally the conclusion. After the reading and comprehension of this paper, you should have gained a basic understanding of the Special Forces (SF) Chemical Reconnaissance Detachments (CRD). The following paper is mixed with Unclassified (UCI) and For Official Use Only (FOUO) information. FOUO is annotated at the beginning of all For Official Use Only information, the rest of the paper is UCI. If you wish to share this information paper with others, please at a minimum; confirm identity of the person prior to providing (FM 380-5, 2000). For further handling instructions please refer to FM 380-5, or contact me, I will gladly answer all questions.
During much of the 1930’s and 1940’s, the United States was a fairly isolated nation. While much of Europe and rest of the world were waging war against Germany, the United States kept a fairly pacifist stance and refrained from military involvement (World War II: Isolationist America). Many citizens in the United States feared an intrusion from outside forces, especially after the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, which changed t...
The Technical Escort Unit (TEU) now provides the Department of Defense and other federal agencies to include the Secret Service and the Federal Bureau of Investigation with an immediate response capability for chemical and biological warfare material. Its mission is to provide a global response for escorting, packaging, detection, rendering-safe, disposing, sampling, analytics, and remediation missions. This does not only include chemical weapons for which it was originally created, but now incorporates biological weapons, state sponsored laboratories, small independent laboratories and small non-weaponized radioactive materials. Most recently, they have been task organized to assist Brigade Combat Teams (BCT) as a force multiplier; the objective of this is to give the Battle Field Commander instant on the ground intelligence regarding Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear (CBRN) hazards within their Area of Operations (AO). With this new mission with the BCT, the TEU is becoming an expeditionary force.
According to Elaine Tyler May in her article Security against Democracy: The Legacy of the Cod War at Home, the cold war made an impact on Americans state of mind. During the nuclear arms race, many Americans became paranoid about their own country as well as foreigners . Instead of trying to get rid of this situation and mediating it , America decides to join this race, which only fuels the fire. At the same, American citizens were living their lives in fear everyday. Citizens were preparing themselves in case of an attack, as a result of the government doing nothing to try to protect America. Elaine Tyler May also states that the media back then was only fueling this phobia to grow. For example, the Los Angeles Times showing hypothetical bomb targets if the Soviets were to attack in Los Angeles. Some Americans, who were considering the possibility of a nuclear war, modified their homes into concrete to resist an atomic blast, created backyard bunkers, or even sheltered in their basements. In addition, whether you were for or against the buildup of nuclear weapons, fear would be present.
- - -, dir. “Tactical Air Control Party Specialist (TACP).” U.S. Air Force. U.S. Air Force, n.d. Web. 7 Feb. 2012. .
With the emergence of nuclear weapons, and the threat of atomic annihilation becoming a real outcome of war for the first time, the American public was understandably nervous. In 1950, 61 percent of those polled thought that the United States should use the atom bomb if there was another world war, and 53 percent believed there was a good or fair chance that their community would be bombed in the next war, further nearly three-fourths assumed that American cities would be bombed with atomic weapons. By 1956, nearly two-thirds of those polled believed that in the event of another war that the hydrogen bomb would be used against the United States. American politicians of the age fed off of this fear, and many used it to great effect in their
As leaders and fellow soldiers, it is up to us to make sure our soldiers and friends live out our legacy. It is up to us we train them well enough so they are able to train the next war fighter generation and think back how we accomplished the mission.
However, failure to procure any putative weapons of mass destruction in Iraq forced Realist apologists to invoke the concept of “offensive Realism” to explain the Iraq war of 2003. They argued that Iraq’s acquisition of uranium and aluminum tubes posed a “Security Dilemma” to the U.S. and her allies. According to Wheeler and Booth, security Dilemmas...
As our forefathers before us stated, ‘‘No one is more professional than I. I am a Noncommissioned Officer, a leader of soldiers. As a Noncommissioned Officer, I realize that I am a member of a time honored corps, which is known as “The Backbone of the Army (“The NCO Creed written by SFC Earle Brigham and Jimmie Jakes Sr”). These words to the Noncommissioned Officer should inspire us to the fullest with pride, honor, and integrity. The NCO creed should mean much more than just words whenever we attend an NCO’s school.
Chapter 2: Strategic Defense, Phony Facts, & the Creation of the George C. Marshall Institute
5. A. Woolf, Missile Defense, Arms Control, and Deterrence: A New Strategic Framework (Kindle: Ninety-Nice Cent, 2009) 1-80
The information that was spread about these weapons also played a big part in the Cold War. Both sides were engaged in an intelligence race in attempts to learn more about the others WMD capabilities. The intelligence community saw a large expansion during this time and still commands a large portion of the instrumental powers. The more intelligence that is obtained the more the United States can analyze potential threats. This can also be used as a deterrent to future attacks and be rolled into diplomacy and