National Guard unit gets new leadership

The 7th WMD-Civil Support Team hosted an Assumption of Command ceremony Monday at the Missouri National Guard Flight Facility in north Jefferson City. Maj. Lindsey Decker, second from right, assumed command from acting commander Maj. Christopher Ash, second from left.
The 7th WMD-Civil Support Team hosted an Assumption of Command ceremony Monday at the Missouri National Guard Flight Facility in north Jefferson City. Maj. Lindsey Decker, second from right, assumed command from acting commander Maj. Christopher Ash, second from left.

The Missouri National Guard's 7th Weapons of Mass Destruction Civil Support Team is not the typical citizen-soldier unit.

The team of only 22 is composed of experts in a variety of scientific and engineering fields.

Rather than providing general services in response to natural disasters and other mass events, the unit supports local emergency responders with highly specialized skills and equipment in acute circumstances.

The civil support team's mission is to support civil authorities at a domestic chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear or high-yield explosives incident site by identifying hazardous substances, assessing current and projected consequences, advising on response measures, and assisting with appropriate requests for additional support, according to the state public affairs office.

The Missouri team was among the first 10 federally funded Department of Defense organized teams in each Federal Emergency Management Agency area. It was originally called a Rapid Assessment and Initial Detection team and based at Ft. Leonard Wood until 2010, when the unit relocated to the Guard's Security and Support Training Site in North Jefferson City.

The active-duty unit conducts about 40 missions or training exercises annually. Its vehicles include an analytic laboratory system and a unified communications suite.

The team is capable of rolling out an advance party within 90 minutes at all times to investigate potential threats, ranging from mass sickness to mysterious white powders to unidentified contaminants, according to the public affairs office.

At its change of command ceremony Monday, the team was praised for having a "reputation of top marks," said Col. William McKinney, brigade commander.

Incoming commander Maj. Lindsey Decker noted the local team "is ranked one of the top Civil Support Teams in the nation arguable at its highest level of readiness in its 16 years existence."

At its last training proficiency evaluation, the team earned a 100 percent on its performance measures and a 96 percent on its last standardization and evaluation inspection.

"This team is most definitely at the top of its game," Decker said. "As a new commander evaluating the unit, it's tough to find room for improvement."

The team had been under the temporary command of Maj. Christopher Ash, who will remain with the team.

Decker comes to the team with 19 years of military experience, mostly in military police. The last two years, she worked at the joint force headquarters at the Ike Skelton Training Site.

She enlisted with the Fulton 2175th Military Police Company in 1997 and was commissioned a second lieutenant in 1999.

Decker deployed to Kosovo in 2001, to Iraq in 2003-04 and to Afghanistan in 2008.

"This is a well-kept secret," Decker said of the team. "I don't think people generally understand all of the exciting training and real-world support missions we participate in."