You would have loved going through the training we had had at Detrick. The protocols were still being written in 1980 for us on the SMART-AIT. By the leading biological research and epidemiology experts at the time. For the recovery of personnel in active bio-containment. The equipment has changed and, the Air Force now fills that role with their CCATS. Be interesting to see first hand how the program has grown. When my unit de-commissioned in 2010 we had 2 teams. To respond to calls around the globe at a moment's notice. CCATS has 6 teams dedicated to this specific recovery process.
I know that I loved my job and, would not trade that experience for anything. Funny thing is I started out to go SF with an H4 contract in 1979. I opted out of SFAS to "volunteer" to go to USAMRIID. We got to see, train for and, respond to some pretty exotic stuff. The African jungle doesn't care what color of headgear you wear. Or whether or not, you're a "SOF guy". We had probably the most unknown intel agency around then, USAMIIA. In a command that no longer exists. Our teams did some pretty special operations. Does that make us "special", probably not now. With an SO designator attached to every MOS there is now. Probably have special ops mailroom clerks now.
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