FREDRICK, Md., Feb. 8, 2011 – A remote training site at nearby Fort Detrick came alive today as Georgia’s 4th Civil Support Team (CST) and representatives from three Cobb County emergency response agencies worked their way through the first of two suspicious substance scenarios – this one scripted – as part of Operation Vigilant Sample III.

Pictured here, Cobb County Police detective Steve Brawner (left) listens while Fire Cobb County Fire Capt. Rick Bennett, the incident commander for today’s scenario, briefs the 4th CST leadership (Capt. Alan Hammond (front-right), CST deputy commander; 1st Lt. Randy Boatner, unit medical officer; Capt. Randall Stover, survey team leader; and Capt. Hubert Thompson, CST operations officer).

Capt. Hammond is using a print-out of a computer generated model to brief participants involved in the bio terrorism training exercise on the predicted impact of weather-inflicted changes to the spread of the "hazard." (full story: <a href="http://gadod.net/index.php/news/ga-dod/current-stories/490" rel="nofollow">gadod.net/index.php/news/ga-dod/current-stories/490</a>)

Under the watchful eyes of the National Institute of Standards and Technology; the American Standards for Technology and Material; the FBI; and the Army’s Medical Research Institute of Infection Diseases (USAMRIID), the CST – with its counterparts from Cobb County Fire and Emergency Services – performed testing of biological agents developed during two earlier Vigilant Sample III exercises. Officers from Cobb County Police and Cobb County Sheriff’s Office established the “chain of custody” as the samples were marked as evidence. The idea behind it all: find out whether testing will work in developing a national standard for other Guard civil support teams and their civilian counterparts to use when dealing with “suspicious substances.”

Also present were representatives of the Georgia Division of Public Health and Cobb-Douglas County Public Health.