Chemical Materials Activity supports Freedom Shield 23 Exercise in South Korea

Chemical Materials Activity supports Freedom Shield 23 Exercise in South Korea

CMA Public Affairs Office

Members of the U.S. Army Chemical Materials Activity (CMA) Combatant Command (CCMD) Integration Team participated in the Freedom Shield 23 exercise in the Republic of Korea (ROK) in the spring, and some of the lessons learned are already being put into practice.

The annual exercise is a defensive-oriented event that focuses on countering North Korean aggression, including the use of chemical weapons, and strengthening the capability of participating forces to effectively respond to crises while maintaining readiness of combat units.

During the exercise, CCMD Integration Support Officer Mr. Bill Hart and CMA Strategic Initiatives Group (SIG) Chief Mr. Darryl Briggs were embedded in the ROK Combined Ground Component Command (CGCC) Counter-Weapons of Mass Destruction Cell (CWMD). The CCMD team received accolades from U.S. and ROK leadership and from the U.S. Army Mission Command Training Program evaluator from Fort Leavenworth for its expertise and leadership. In the months since the Freedom 23 exercise, the ROK has incorporated into their missions many of the procedures and much of the knowledge shared by CMA, Hart said.

CMA’s core expertise in safe and secure chemical weapons stockpile storage, monitoring, handling, and destruction proved invaluable to exercise participants. Headquartered on Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, CMA’s workforce includes the Army’s leading experts in chemical weapons management, assessment, and destruction, and protection of communities near chemical stockpiles. The CMA SIG includes the Public Affairs Office and CMA support to combatant commanders.

CMA has decades of experience working with the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) to support U.S. compliance with the international Chemical Weapons Convention Treaty, which prohibits development, production, stockpiling, transfer, and use of chemical weapons.

“CMA personnel are the recognized United States experts on chemical weapons stockpile storage, monitoring, handling, and accountability,” Briggs said. “Our director is the Army’s Chemical Treaty Implementing Agent, and our workforce has experience in dealing with live munitions and chemical agents on a daily basis.

“No one else has the in-depth expertise that CMA has, and we want to preserve and share that expertise with our commanders in the field,” Briggs said.

The CMA Recovered Chemical Materiel Directorate provides specialized Army capabilities in the assessment and destruction of chemical weapons, whether stockpiled chemical munitions, ton containers of bulk chemical agent, or single recoveries of buried chemical warfare materiel. RCMD’s proven, transportable technologies can safely assess and neutralize chemical warfare materiel wherever it is recovered. The CMA CCMD Integration Team goal was to provide ROK forces with a clear understanding of how to meet their own nation’s treaty obligations when they encounter chemical warfare during combat activities.

"Our role in this exercise is to try to take all that CMA expertise and get it out to the commanders, specifically the ones that own the battle space and key CWMD mission areas, so that when they start dealing with chemical warfare agents and materials, they have what they need to be successful in their missions,” Hart said.

Freedom Shield 23 was the last step in the CGCC obtaining the status of Fully Mission Capable. Hart said the CWMD cell was the first to pass the fully mission capable test – a feat that did not go unnoticed by ROK commanders.

“We had quite a few visitors, four-star generals and the like, coming down and visiting us because the CWMD Cell was contributing so effectively,” Hart said. “We were fully recognized for the work we were doing, and CMA’s participation was directly called out.”

Moving forward as the CMA CCMD Integration Support Officer, Hart said it is his job to ensure commands and personnel who require access to CMA’s four decades of unique expertise can get the support they need.

“That reach-back capability is really key,” Hart said, “and we’re going to keep exercising that to meet the needs of the commands we support.”

Photo Caption

U.S. Army Chemical Materials Activity (CMA) Combatant Command (CCMD) Integration Support Officer Mr. William Hart stands with Republic of Korea (ROK) and U.S. personnel during the Freedom Shield 23 exercise.