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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Friday, October 22, 2004
CHARLES COUNTY - Congressman Steny Hoyer today visited Indian Head Naval Surface Warfare Center to meet with Chemical Biological Incident Response Force (CBIRF) troops following a ceremony to name the Training Facility after Ray Downey, a Marine and New York City Firefighter who died on September 11, but who worked to develop the CBIRF concept.
Congressman Hoyer is a strong supporter of the Marine Corps’ Chemical Biological Incident Response Force (CBIRF), a 380-member team headquartered at the Naval Surface Warfare Center Indian Head. In 2000, the unit relocated to Indian Head from Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. The unit’s mission is to respond to a credible threat of a chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear or high-yield explosive incident in order to assist local, state or federal agencies.
“I am pleased to have the opportunity to come out to Indian Head to meet with CBIRF troops who have played a critical role in protecting our citizens from emergency situations,” said Congressman Hoyer. “The work being done at this facility is critical to meeting the everyday needs of local, state and federal officials who must operate in urgent situations. They are working to provide coordinated capabilities that will be used by the military on the ground, in the air and at sea, and by domestic protection agencies all over the United States.”
The Marine Corps activated CBIRF in 1996 following the 1995 Sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway. This event, compounded by Iraq’s suspected possession of biological weapons, revealed that the threat of biological and chemical terrorism had significantly increased. It was clear that the Department of Defense needed to focus on both prevention and response in dealing with the catastrophic potential of a biological or chemical attack on the United States.
CBIRF is manned, trained, and equipped to rapidly respond to chemical or biological terrorist incidents and immediately deploy to provide assistance to local response teams, including: coordinating initial relief efforts; security and isolation at the affected site; detection, identification, and decontamination of personnel and equipment; and expert medical advice.
When not training, exercising or responding to an incident, CBIRF personnel provide training to other organizations, and it continues to develop new countermeasures, equipment, techniques, and procedures. Additionally, CBIRF assists federal, state, and local response forces develop chemical and biological incident training programs.
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