Maryland Civil Support Team conducts pharmaceutical exercise in Florida
Story by Airman 1st Class Sarah Hoover
MELBOURNE, Fla. – Nearly 20 Soldiers and Airmen of the Maryland National Guard’s 32nd Weapons of Mass Destruction Civil Support Team (WMD-CST) conducted a pharmaceutical-based agent training exercise at the National Strategic Research Institute, Space Coast Office, February 16-22, 2025.
The 19-person team participating in the exercise conducted an equipment linehaul of select CST vehicles from Fort George G. Meade, Maryland to Florida, to simulate a request by civil authorities in the event of a domestic chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear incident that happened outside the state of Maryland.
The pharmaceutical-based agent training consisted of two days of classroom instruction. The first day focused on general background for the production, synthesis, and detection of pharmacological agents, while day two involved hands-on lab procedures and synthesis, as well as reviewing some of the decontamination processes.
“We were able to work on a large-scale chemical production plant that we normally are not privileged to because usually, when we’re deployed, we’re working on a much smaller scale in a more clandestine lab,” said Maryland Air National Guard Maj. Wesley Greer, deputy commander of the 32nd Weapons of Mass Destruction Civil Support Team.
During the third day, the team focused on characterizing types of threats by determining the amount of fentanyl that could be produced at a large-scale production facility.
“A PBA threat offers unique characteristics because it’s basically a category of synthetic drugs, specifically the fentanyl families, carfentanil and remifentanil,” said Maryland Army National Guard Sgt. 1st Class Charles Contic, reconnaissance non-commissioned officer, 32nd WMD-CST. “The nature of PBAs makes them difficult to detect using most commercial, off-the-shelf instruments, so it’s a unique threat and stretches the capabilities of our equipment and expertise.”
After completing the PBA training, the team and six fleet vehicles were airlifted back to Martinsburg, West Virginia, by two C-17 Globemaster II from the West Virginia National Guard’s 167th Airlift Wing.
Throughout the year, civil support teams across the nation are required by the National Guard Bureau to conduct eight full-scale exercises, but the unique feature of this exercise was adding the equipment linehaul that traveled over 900 miles and joint-unit airlift.
“This is the first time we’ve done a convoy, a linehaul, a PBA exercise, and an airlift all in one mission, so the training value was just extraordinary,” said Greer.
The West Virginia Air National Guard supported the mission with 21 Airmen who assisted in the airlift portion of the training. There were two aircrews consisting of 11 pilots and load masters, seven joint-inspectors, and a public affairs specialist.
“We started planning and working on this back in 2023 with the 167th, so we’ve been working with them for almost two years now, practicing airlifts and static loads, building all that is required for these movements and working with their joint inspectors,” said Greer. “It’s great to reach out and work with our Air Force partners and to highlight our effectiveness as one team, one fight, increasing our readiness posture to show our flexibility working with different units and different branches.”
Additionally, one of the team goals for future exercises is to airlift all organic equipment and vehicles.
“The special part about this exercise was the linehaul during the beginning of the training week, and then the airlift at the end,” said Contic. “I’ve been on the team for eight years now, and this is the first time we’ve tested this capability.”
The team expressed that even for a seemingly simple two-hour flight, planning and preparation can often take around six months to a year.
“The airlift is designed to test our capability to deploy anywhere in the United States as fast as possible,” Contic said. “It would be interesting to see how much we could do with a realistic time constraint.”
Following the airlift, the team conducted a ground convoy from Martinsburg, West Virginia to Fort Meade, Maryland.
“There were a lot of schedule and planning changes in the last couple of weeks,” said Maryland Army National Guard Sgt. Kevin Joiner, survey team member, 32nd WMD-CST. “The whole team rose to the occasion very well, considering it was a new challenge for us consisting of a lot of new things being thrown at us, but we stayed flexible.”
The 32nd WMD-CST, one of 57 CST joint-teams in each U.S. state and territory across the nation, consists of four Air National Guard members and 18 Army National Guard members.
The week-long training provided new perspectives and insights that are likely to propel this team forward in future preparation and innovation.
“Everyone had a lot of fun on this, and the team did really well to rise to the occasion meeting those challenges,” said Joiner.
