decontaminate themselves with the assistance of battalion decontamination
crews. In a division, this operation can be reinforced by elements from the
division chemical company.
In a separate brigade the brigade's
decontamination detachment or a decontamination element from corps can to
the same thing.
The decontamination detachment sets up the decontamination site in the
brigade or regimental support area with the help of the contaminated unit.
At least two squads from the detachment run the Detailed Equipment
Decontamination;
the
contaminated
unit
runs
the
Detailed
Troop
Decontamination and assists with the Equipment Decontamination.
Together,
the detachment's commander and Senior Noncommissioned Officer brief the
contaminated unit's key personnel and supervise the operation.
2.
Corps and Echelons Above Corps.
Units in rear areas of the corps and theater are prime targets for NBC
attack. The nature of rear area units and the characteristics of attacks on
them point to dependence on thorough decontamination in rear areas.
Many attacks will be on fixed facilities that cannot be hidden (airfields,
ports, supply points). Contamination may be unavoidable. When this occurs,
Operational Decontamination may not be practical. Thorough Decontamination
may be required for two reasons: to prevent the transfer of contamination
and to provide a shirt-sleeve environment.
When the support unit's personnel, materiel, or equipment are contaminated,
they are less useful and even dangerous to the uncontaminated units they
support. If the support unit forwards contaminated supplies to a receiving
unit, it spreads the contamination.
It makes little sense to partially
decontaminate the support unit. If any decontamination is done, it should
be thorough enough to stop the spread of contamination. This will probably
require Thorough Decontamination.
Some units require a shirt-sleeve environment in order to operate:
Headquarters, medical units, and communication centers, for example. These
service units may find it worthwhile to use Operational Decontamination to
gain temporary relief from MOPP, but it will not improve their performance.
For example, a signal maintenance unit may not be able to accomplish a
repair mission in MOPP 4. It would not get out of MOPP 4 with Operational
Decontamination. The unit should begin Thorough Decontamination as soon as
possible.
Some battalion-size units will have their own decontamination equipment and
can conduct their own Operational Decontamination the same way as divisional
units. All units can conduct a MOPP Gear
2-15
CM2300
Previous Page
