U.S. Chemical Biological Incident Response Force (CBIRF)

DATE: Activated on April 4, 1996

IDENTIFICATION: Branch of the US Marine Corps designed to respond rapidly to terrorist-initiated chemical and biological threats against the United States.

SIGNIFICANCE: Developed in response to growing threats of terrorist attacks during the mid-1990s, the US Chemical Biological Incident Response Force is designed to work with other federal, local, and state emergency response agencies. The force’s services include chemical and biological agent detection, emergency medical care, casualty search and rescue, and personnel decontamination.

A self-sustaining unit under the command of the US Marine Corps, the Chemical Biological Incident Response Force, or CBIRF, is part of the Fourth Marine Expeditionary Brigade. It is headquartered at Indian Head, Maryland, twenty-seven miles from Washington, DC. Its personnel represent a variety of military occupational specialties. The CBIRF owns and maintains commercially available radiological, biological, and chemical defense equipment; general support equipment; and medical equipment used in support of its quick-response mandate to terrorist incidents occurring throughout the world.

Although the CBIRF is not directly involved in counterterrorist operations, its personnel are trained to deal with the consequences of chemical and biological attacks. Other government agencies have expertise and responsibilities that overlap those of the CBIRF. What makes the CBIRF exceptional is that it is a completely self-contained unit capable of handling all its mandated responsibilities on its own.

Background

Creation of the CBIRF was a response to such terrorist events as the bombing of Oklahoma City’s federal office building and the Aum Shinrikyo cult’s nerve gas attack on a Tokyo subway station—both of which occurred in 1995. In the aftermath of those events, US president Bill Clinton issued a directive on counterterrorism policy calling for specific efforts to deter deadly terrorist attacks in both the United States and allied nations. The most tangible outcome of that presidential directive was the establishment of the CBIRF within the US Marine Corps in April 1996.

Shortly after its creation, the CBIRF was deployed to assist in a series of high-profile events. One of the first of these was the Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta, Georgia, during 1996. Less than ten minutes after a pipe bomb exploded in the Olympic Village, a CBIRF unit on standby only one mile away went into action. Since that time, CBIRF units have been deployed to serve at presidential inauguration ceremonies, subsequent presidential State of the Union addresses in Congress, papal visits to the United States, and the 1999 summit meeting of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

Since the terrorist attacks on the United States of September 11, 2001, CBIRF units have been active in collecting biological samples and screening congressional mail and office equipment. In December 2001, the CBIRF sent a one-hundred-member initial-response team into the Dirksen Senate Office Building in Washington, DC, to detect and remove anthrax. CBIRF units have also supported overseas exercises in such countries as Bahrain, France, Iceland, Italy, Jordan, the Philippines, and Japan.

The Five CBIRF Elements

The CBIRF is organized to operate through five areas of responsibility called “elements”: reconnaissance, decontamination, medical, security, and service support. After the nuclear, biological, and chemical (NBC) reconnaissance element defines the locations of incident sites, the decontamination element decontaminates personnel and equipment exposed to chemical or biological agents. Meanwhile, the medical element provides triage support to casualties, the security element provides security for the contaminated site, and the service support element provides shelter, food, and water.

Members of the reconnaissance elements are always the first to enter affected areas. They are trained and equipped to detect, classify, and identify all known chemical and biological agents. This element has two reconnaissance vehicles equipped to detect vapor and liquid contamination. The unit’s twenty Marines, ten corpsmen, and one medical officer also provide emergency casualty evacuation teams capable of stabilizing and extracting casualties from the affected area.

Decontamination elements made up of twenty-seven Marines and sailors are responsible for the decontamination of personnel and casualties, and they stabilize casualties waiting for further treatment. Decontamination elements establish themselves at the edges of contaminated areas, near the medical elements’ triage stations. There, personnel and casualties, both ambulatory and nonambulatory, are processed through a series of stations derived from NBC decontamination standards.

As contaminated individuals enter the areas, their personal effects and equipment are collected, and clothing items are removed. The individuals themselves are then sprayed and sponged with a 0.5 percent bleach solution and led through showers that rinse off the decontaminating liquid. The personal effects and equipment of the contaminated individuals are also processed through the cycle.

Individuals are then monitored with handheld monitors (CAMs) to determine whether traces of contamination are still present. Those found still to be contaminated are again sent through the full decontamination cycle. After all casualties are decontaminated, element members change their bandages and dressings as needed and transport the individuals to waiting medical personnel. Although the decontamination element’s personnel includes Marines with a variety of occupational specialties, more than half of the Marines are NBC defense specialists who have undergone nine-week training courses at Fort McClellan, Alabama.

The CBIRF is routinely present at events such as presidential inaugurations and State of the Union addresses as a precautionary move. In 2011, the task force was part of the US effort to assist Japan following a devastating earthquake and tsunami that hit the nation. The CBIRF also takes part in numerous simulated disaster drills.

Equipment

When the CBIRF was first organized, it used “off-the-shelf” equipment, such as chemical-protective overgarments and gas masks. Other items included NBC reconnaissance vehicles capable of detecting both vapor and liquid contamination, chemical agent monitors, vapor and liquid agent detection kits, remote chemical agent sensing alarms, and decontamination kits. As the CBIRF has developed, it has played an increasing role in testing innovative concepts in equipment, techniques, and procedures used in its mandated tasks.

After the January 6, 2021, riots at the US Capitol, the CBIRF began assisting the Capitol Police. During the 2022 Presidential State of the Union, the CBIRF was in position and ready to provide quick and forceful support, should the need arise.

Bibliography

Bolz, Frank, Jr., Kenneth J. Dudonis, and David P. Schulz. The Counterterrorism Handbook: Tactics, Procedures, and Techniques. 3d ed. Boca Raton, Fla.: CRC Press, 2005.

Boss, Martha J., and Dennis W. Day, eds. Biological Risk Engineering Handbook: Infection Control and Decontamination. Boca Raton, Fla.: CRC Press, 2003.

Cirincione, Joseph, Jon B. Wolfsthal, and Miriam Rajkumar. Deadly Arsenals: Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical Threats. Rev. ed. Washington, D.C.: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 2005.

Environmental Protection Agency. Compilation of Available Data on Building Decontamination Alternatives. Washington, D.C.: Author, 2005.

Sauter, Mark A., and James Jay Carafano. Homeland Security: A Complete Guide to Understanding, Preventing, and Surviving Terrorism. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2005.

"Stories." Chemical Biological Incident Response Force, 2024, www.cbirf.marines.mil/News/Stories/. Accessed 14 Aug. 2024.

Tucker, Jonathan B., ed. Toxic Terror: Assessing the Terrorist Use of Chemical and Biological Weapons. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2000.