TAC SGPB BIOENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING EXPERIENCES AND

File: aabgm_15.txt
Page: 15
Total Pages: 23
                  OPERATIONS DESERT SHIELD AND DESERT STORM
                                BIOENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING
    
                                             BEE LESSONS LEARNED
    

    ADEQUACY OF BIOENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEER & BEET TRAINING - Overall,
    the BEE folks are very well trained. However, several areas
    which are not performed during peacetime conditions were found to
    be lacking. The specific topics requiring additional training
    are:
    
                          NBC OPERATIONS - DETECTION, DISSIPATION, NEUTRALIZATION, &
                          PERMEABILITY -
    
                         WATER VULNERABILITY STUDIES
    
                         ROPU (REVERSE OSMOSIS PURIFICATION UNIT) OPERATION
    
                         WATER-BORNE DISEASES
         
                         COMMON SENSE NO-INSTRUMENT PRACTICAL INDUSTRIAL HYGIENE
                         SURVEILLANCE PROCEDURES
    
                        FIELD CONDITION DRINKING WATER STANDARDS AND DOSE
                        CALCULATIONS
    
    ADVANCE ECHELON (ADVON) TEAMS - Several of the MTFs sent a ADVON
    team to their bed-down location in advance of the main group.
    The primary function of the ADVON team was to select a good site
    to erect the ATH or ATC.  In each case, the ADVON team consisted
    of only four or five individuals but none of them included a
    bioenvironmental engineer.  Several ATHs were erected in
    undesirable locations such as in flood zones or near airfield
    targets.  A bioenvironmental engineer or BEET should be included
    on all ADVON teams to assess utility needs (power, water, sewage,
    etc.), to aid in site selection based on survivability issues,
    and to determine NBC detection monitoring needs.
    
    ATH CHAIN OF COMMAND - There was some confusion about the chain
    of command since there are no SGPs assigned to ATHs. At several
    locations, the senior Environmental heath Officer or
    Bioenvironmental Engineer was placed in charge of both the BEE
    and Environmental Health sections. In the future, the
    Bioenvironmental Engineer should report directly to the ATH
    Commander in the absence of a Chief of Aeromedical Services.
    
    BEE WARTIME CHECKLISTS - Most deploying BEE personnel did not
    have adequate wartime BEE disaster checklists to guide them.
    Those that had checklists had developed them piece-meal over the
    years. Some contained valuable guidance where others were vague
    and useless. There is a tremendous need for standardized Air
    Force BEE wartime checklists. 
    
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