ELMA - In light of recent world events, the abilities of an Army unit to respond to a situation involving chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear agents has become more significant to contain a disaster of a large or small magnitude.

The 61st Chemical Company Bulldogs, of Joint Base Lewis-McChord, participated in a four- day field training exercise May 12 at Satsop Developmental Park in Elma.

The threat of chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear disasters is real, but it doesn't have to be from terrorists. It could be an accident, spill or natural disaster, such as the March earthquakes and tsunamis in Japan. They damaged nuclear reactors and cooling towers which created a radioactive substance that was released in the air.

"What happened in Japan made us realize the threat is out there," Capt. John Boyle, company commander, 61st Chemical Company, said.

In an industrialized nation like the United States, there are many plants and factories that might not seem like a danger until something goes wrong.

Chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear accidents might not happen often, but we still have plants that have these threats in them and contaminate people without it being an attack from a terrorist, said Staff Sgt. Christian Floril, chemical specialist, 61st Chemical Company. If it blows up and people have the chemicals on their skin or inhale them, we have to be able to treat them with symptoms.

For the Bulldogs to train how they fight, they had to get out of the woods of JBLM and into an urban environment.

"We chose the Satsop Developmental Park because it gets us out of the monotony," Boyle said. "As excellent as the training facilities are at JBLM, this brings us to a new environment to train in. It gives us the element of the unknown. It really tests their abilities to be flexible and adapt to an ever changing environment around them."

The Bulldogs' knowledge was put to the test while training on several different activities, to include sensitive site exploration, terrain decontamination, personnel decontamination processes and ended with a companywide mass casualty exercise.

For the mass casualty training, Soldiers portrayed people who were exposed to a chemical, biological, nuclear, or radiological contaminant and needed to receive treatment. Those in the decontamination platoons suited up in their protective masks, plastic gowns, rubber boots and gloves and prepared for the incoming casualties.

The unit set up a link-up point where medical personnel who set up a triage to evaluate casualties, Floril said. Once evaluated the casualties will get their contaminated clothes cut off and brought to the contaminated items bin.

If casualties were ambulatory, they walk through the wash tent. Litter patients are put on a spine board and rolled through, Floril said. They are sprayed with warm soapy water for about 20 minutes. After the cleaning cycle, they go through a rinse cycle to get all the soapy contaminated water off them. After the wash tent they are monitored to see if all contaminates are removed. If they aren't clean the wash cycle is repeated. Once clean they are removed from the hot zone, the area of contamination.

The Bulldogs put everything they've learned at JBLM to the test at the unknown, unfinished nuclear power plant at Satsop.

Boyle said he thought the unit did very well. The Soldiers really stepped up to the challenges of facing the unknown and did well. Both the junior and senior leadership were able to think outside the box and adapt.

The unit was able to overcome a lot of the challenges that they were presented, Boyle said.