UNIPATH STAFF
A truck contaminated with potentially hazardous radiation attracted the scrutiny of Kuwaiti and U.S. troops in a scenario that played out in the Kuwaiti desert in April 2018.
The weapons of mass destruction drill was serious business requiring reliance on protective suits and strict decontamination procedures. It was part of a larger multinational focus on dealing with chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear attacks.
The exercise brought together 45 members of the Kuwait Land Forces Weapons of Mass Destruction Battalion and the U.S. Army’s 300th Chemical Company.
1st Lt. Nawaf Al-Awadi, assistant commander of training in the Kuwaiti battalion, praised the opportunity to exchange techniques and experience with American partners.
“I think there are some differences in the details of how we do our decontamination, and we need to know what those details are, so we can work together in real situations,” Lt. Al-Awadi said.
“Working together makes our relationship stronger and makes us more powerful, so we can fight stronger. Working as a team makes everything easier.”
In preparation for the demonstration with the radiologically contaminated truck, the troops spent long hours honing their abilities to get in and out of protective gear and to handle decontamination pumps.
“They were able to clean the vehicle to a level that we could still maintain our fighting capability, and the Soldiers were able to demonstrate their ability to change out their protective equipment and return to the fight,” said U.S. 1st Lt. Jared Schwab.
“Today’s joint training provided a good foundation for future training events. We worked with their leadership to develop this scenario, and we worked with them during the scenario to see how much we could provide to our interoperability future goals, in case we had a real-life scenario.” Source: U.S. Army