FORT STORY, Virginia – A highly specialized team from the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) trained Special Operations Forces during a countering weapons of mass destruction (CWMD) scenario with an almost-impossible task: to operate completely in the open in a busy civilian setting – while being completely unnoticed by everyone around them.
A DTRA Technical Support Group (TSG) trained, exercised, and operated with specialized U.S. military units on how to detect, locate, and identify (and possibly take control of) WMD or related chemical, biological, radiological, or nuclear materials that an adversary might possess as part of a joint “Nimble Elder” training evolution on Fort Story, Virginia. DTRA Director Rebecca Hersman, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations Policy and Programs Erin Logan, and other senior DoD leaders were on hand to witness both the near-invisibility of the frontline operators, as well as the intense, behind-the-scenes control center that seemed right out of a Hollywood action movie.