FORT STEWART, Georgia – Highly specialized Soldiers from the 63rd Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear (CBRN) Company “Dragon Masters” trained for domestic response missions during an exercise on Fort Stewart, Georgia.
The 63rd CBRN Company is preparing to serve on the Defense CBRN Response Force in support of U.S. Northern Command’s Joint Task Force-Civil Support.
The DCRF saves lives, mitigates suffering and facilitates recovery operations in a CBRN environment to support civil authorities. The task force conducts defense support to civil authority response operations planning and preparedness to ensure mission readiness.
The 63rd CBRN Company is part of the 48th Chemical Brigade and 20th Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear, Explosives (CBRNE) Command, the U.S. military’s premier all hazards headquarters. The “Dragon Masters” tame CBRN hazards during military operations and domestic missions.
A hazardous response company, the Fort Campbell, Kentucky-based 63rd CBRN Company previously served on DCRF in 2019 – 2020 before deploying to South Korea for nine months to support rotational U.S. Army forces on the Korean Peninsula.
During their last tour on DCRF in 2019 - 2020, the “Dragon Masters” set three exercise records, including set up time for a mass casualty decontamination line, total number of patients processed in one hour and most consecutive hours meeting non-ambulatory and ambulatory through put requirements.
Capt. Matthew J. Maddox, the “Dragon Masters” commanding officer of the 63rd CBRN Company, said the two-week exercise in April helped to prepare his Soldiers for a two-year DCRF rotation starting in June.
“The main focus of the training exercise at Fort Stewart was to prepare our task force for an upcoming major disaster response exercise,” said Maddox. “The training was unique due to the type of missions and scenarios, along with working with several different organizations while at Fort Stewart. This type of combined training has increased our readiness in the event our task force is activated.”
Maddox added that the task force includes more than 200 Soldiers from different companies, including the 561st Military Police Company and 581st Area Support Medical Company.
A native of Sandoval, Illinois, Maddox is a former 5th grade teacher and National Guardsmen who was commissioned on Active Duty in the U.S. Army in 2014.
As a Chemical Corps officer, Maddox has served at the company, battalion and brigade level. He also deployed with the 31st Air Defense Brigade Headquarters to the U.S. Central Command for Operation Spartan Shield and Operation Inherent Resolve in 2019.
Maddox said the Fort Stewart exercise was a great opportunity for his Soldiers to hone their mission-enabling and life-saving skills while forging new partnerships with other units.
“Networking is such an overlooked combat multiplier,” said Maddox. “Our teams did everything we could to get the wrinkles out early in the storming and forming phases of new group relationships.
“Seeing the vast improvement of the Soldiers from the first mission to the last mission (was a highlight),” said Maddox. “The entire team had a positive attitude, strong work ethic and made huge improvements leading up to the completion of our task force's night mission.”
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