MARINE CORPS AIR STATION, IWAKUNI -- To better prepare the Station to deal with a chemical incident or attack, a new 13-zone chemical defense system was devised to replace the Marine Corps' old procedures for dealing with Nuclear Biological Chemical defense.
Iwakuni is the test-bed of the new program, and the Station will help determine its effectiveness, strengths and weaknesses.
If an incident occurred in the past, Marines across the Station would all don the same level of mission oriented protective posture suits. Level one is the lowest and least constricting, and four causes the individual to have every piece of cumbersome MOPP gear on their body.
With the new split MOPP program, each specific zone will have its own designated MOPP level based on the contamination of that area. This will allow Marines to wear only the gear they need.
"Basically this is a new reasonable man approach to NBC defense," said Chief Warrant Officer 2 Michael Wadley, Marine Aircraft Group 12 NBC officer. "Instead of everybody going to MOPP-4 for two weeks, split MOPP will allow us to maintain our combat power and restore our operational capabilities in a far shorter period of time."
The 13 zones, labeled A-M, designated by yellow signs throughout the Station, allow individuals to know what areas are contaminated or which areas they are in or passing into.
"The zones are designed around natural barriers," Wadley said. "Each zone will have a zone commander and a monitoring and survey decontamination team."
Teams will be able to deal with anything from chemical casualties to decontamination of vehicles. One of the most recent zone commander and team classes trained 80 Marines.
Although some may think the program and the zones were put in place because of a threat, the zones are merely a proactive measure, Wadley noted.
"This isn't being developed because there is any specific threat to Iwakuni right now, he added. "It's being developed here as a model to be used anywhere in the Marine Corps."
The zones will activate in response to three main situations, he noted.
"We can activate the zones for something as simple as a chemical spill, or we can use them for a conventional attack or a terrorist attack," Wadley said.
Although the zone system is a military program, there are a few things the community should know about the zone system.
"They need to know exactly what zone they live in," said Staff Sgt. Michael Wiggins, Marine Aircraft Group 12 NBC staff noncommissioned officer-in-charge. "If we start passing information over television or radio about their zone, it is something they need to know."
If an incident is occurring or has occurred, the community will be notified by the public address system, military police on patrol with loud speakers, Commanders Access Channel 5 and American Forces Network television and radio 1575 AM.
Once the PA announces the alarm, there are a few things individuals can do to stay as safe as possible.
"If they are at home, they want to take a damp towel and place it under the crack of the door, make sure they turn off the ventilation systems and put their mask or respirator on and stay indoors," Wadley said. "Then they should turn to the commanders channel and AFN for further instructions."
Individuals without respirators can use a damp cloth to cover their mouth and nose.
If individuals are caught at work they should stay there, according to Wadley. Individuals caught in a vehicle should roll up their windows, turn off their ventilation systems and seek immediate shelter indoors, he added.
Children at school will put on their respirators and be sheltered in place until they can move to a safe area to reunite with their families.
While individuals tune to the different information sources, they will hear or see the new counter chemical warfare condition codes of white, yellow, green, red and black. Each color designates a different level of threat, similar to the colors used during a typhoon.
"White is no threat, yellow is a slightly higher threat, green is an even higher threat of NBC attack and red means we are actually being attacked," Wadley said. "Attack condition black is when the attack is over, and that is when we would start recovering."
All the aspects of the new system will be tested Monday through Friday during a counter chemical warfare exercise. The five-day exercise will determine the effectiveness of the program and how the Marine Corps will use the new counter chemical warfare system in the future.
Station residents are encouraged to participate in the exercise to the fullest extent possible, and react as they would during a real incident.
"It's an exercise so remain calm," Wadley said. "We have to prepare for situations like these so we will be able to respond better."