Maryland Civil Support Team Frequency Question

[Dispatcher308]

Today I was at work and saw Maryland's 32nd Civil Support Team.
I wonder other than the Frequencies we have for Maryland National Guard what other frequencies they use. The reason I ponder this Question is I saw they had XTS-5000's and they were UHF Portbles as they had UHF Antennas.

Also some of the trucks had UHF & VHF Mobiles in them.

Just something to Ponder and keep in the back of everyones mind. I am sure they could use just about anything, just wondering if anyone may know.

*** I wish I could go into more detail but I am afraid I may get in trouble talking about the radio's I saw.***

 

[TinEar]

From the little I know about these teams, they should be able to interact with just about any response team during and after a WMD event. Based on their congressional charter I would expect they have the ability to work with any first responders in the area. The Maryland team was established late in the game so I don't know if they've been certified yet. Nathan, do you know? I also don't know if the 32nd Maryland team is under the control of the Army or Air National Guard since it seems to be a mix of both around the country.

 

[jks19714]

CSTs fall under the Joint Forces HQ (formerly known as STARC) when in State "mode" (Title 32) or under NORTHCOM/FORSCOM/... in Federal mode (Title 10). JFHQs are staffed by Air and Army National Guard members. The 22 members of the CSTs are full-timers.

73, john
W3JKS/AAT3BF/AAM3O/AAA9AC

 

[Dispatcher308]

Yes Alan they have been certified and they are appearntly moving from the Pikesville Armory to Ft. Meade and they are on orders as full time. The are both Army National Guard and Air National Guard and the stuff they have is just NEAT.

 

[TinEar]

Thanks Nathan. I was wondering about the certification since Maryland was one of the very last teams to be formed in the nation and the training period is 15 months. I can bet what you said about their equipment is true. Each team has two pieces of equipment that form the basis for what they do. One is a mobile lab to analyze the substances used in a WMD attack and the other is a communications lab that can provide interoperability among and between any units that respond for the incident. That's what tells me that they must have the capability to communicate with just about everyone.

The Civil Support Teams were envisioned to be 10 units, geographically placed around the country to be able to respond to all large population centers. Then they added 17 more. That wasn't enough so they added another five units bringing the total to 32. Of course some states felt left out and lobbied their congress critters for more teams. So it was decided we needed 55 teams and that's where Maryland came in - in that last group. Their mission is described below (lifted from GlobalSecurity.org):

"The WMD Civil Support Teams were established to deploy rapidly to assist a local incident commander in determining the nature and extent of an attack or incident; provide expert technical advice on WMD response operations; and help identify and support the arrival of follow-on state and federal military response assets. They are joint units and, as such, can consists of both Army National Guard and Air National Guard personnel, with some of these units commanded by Air National Guard lieutenant colonels.

The mission of Weapons of Mass Destruction Civil Support Teams (WMD-CST) is to support local and state authorities at domestic WMD/NBC incident sites by identifying agents and substances, assessing current and projected consequences, advising on response measures, and assisting with requests for additional military support."