In January 2012, I profiled the 48th Civil Support Team, a 22-member unit of the Florida National Guard that waits in their hangar at the St. Petersburg-Clearwater International Airport for disasters human-made and natural.
The unit had been on the budget chopping block, but their funding was restored in the FY 2014 defense spending bill beginning to wend its way through Washington.
Earlier this week, SECDEF Chuck Hagel testified that the 48th, and a similar unit in New York, the 24th CST, had their funding restored. Driving home the importance of these units is the fact that the 24th CST helped out after the Boston Marathon bombing.
Here’s how the news was delivered to the House Defense Appropriations Committee Defense Subcommittee, chaired by Congressman C.W. “Bill” Young, according to a media release from the Florida National Guard:
Young noted that the 24th CST had responded to the Boston Marathon bombing incident that day.
“These are important teams, and Congress is very, very supportive of those teams,” the congressman said during the hearing.
Young’s congressional district in Florida includes Clearwater, Fla., where the 48th CST is based.
“We have funded both the New York and the Florida teams,” Hagel told the committee, as part of testimony which focused on the President’s fiscal 2014 budget request for the Department of Defense.
During the hearing Rep. Nita Lowey of New York also received assurance from the Secretary of Defense that the units would not be eliminated. In a statement on her website, the congresswoman recognized both Rep. Young and subcommittee member Rep. Bill Owens of New York for their roles in preventing the “National Guard Weapons of Mass Destruction Civil Support Teams in Florida and New York from being eliminated.”
The 48th CST and its highly-trained members can provide assistance to state and local authorities during domestic incidents by: identifying chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear and high-yield explosive agents or substances; assessing potential consequences; and assisting with determining appropriate response measures. The unit can deploy with high-tech equipment and expertise to advise civilian agencies during emergency operations and facilitate requests for assistance of additional state and federal assets to help save lives, prevent human suffering and mitigate property damage.
“We are gratified by Secretary Hagel’s determination to reverse last month’s decision to disestablish the 48th Civil Support Team,” said the Adjutant General of Florida Maj. Gen. Emmett R. Titshaw Jr. “In view of the clear threats to our nation – and recognizing Florida’s high concentrations of valuable infrastructure, population densities, tourist destinations and size – it was imperative that Florida retain both existing CSTs.”