An Army unit and its 266 soldiers, responsible for researching and testing defense methods against weapons of mass destruction, is preparing to leave the Edgewood Area of Aberdeen Proving Ground, its home since World War II, starting Friday.
The 22nd CBRN Battalion, or Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Battalion, has been at Edgewood since 1944. Its subordinate companies will be transferred to several military bases around the country as the Army reorganizes its ground combat units.
"They're going across the U.S. to align with Army divisions to better support them," Maj. Ryan Donald, spokesperson for the APG-based 20th CBRNE Command, said Monday.
The move will start Friday morning with a casing ceremony, when the battalion's colors are taken down and placed in a storage case. The units will cease operating until they "uncase the colors" at their new posts, Donald said.
The battalion has 332 soldiers in five companies, four of which are assigned to APG, meaning 266 soldiers will be affected.
The battalion's headquarters company, which has 68 soldiers, and its 25th, 46th and 68th CBRN companies, which have 66 soldiers each, will move to Army posts in Georgia and Texas, according to Donald.
The fifth 66-soldier company, the 59th CBRN Company, is based at Ft. Drum, N.Y., and will remain there, Donald said.
The transition of the various units is expected to be complete by July 2017, according to a news release from the battalion.
"Re-stationing the 22nd CBRN Battalion better enables our units to train with and support our Army divisions and ensures the 20th CBRNE Command can provide the Department of the Army and combatant commanders with ready, reliable and globally responsive forces," Brig. Gen. William E. King IV, the 20th CBRNE's commanding general, said in a statement.
Each company under the 22nd Battalion, which handles decontamination, reconnaissance, surveillance and defense from CBRN threats, is responsible for "technical escort."
Technical escort involves providing "advice, assessment, sampling, detection, verification, render-safe, packaging and escort of chemical and biological devices or hazards, biological surveillance and limited consequence management support to military forces or civilian authorities," according to Donald.
The 68th CBRN Company will move to Ft. Hood, Texas; the battalion headquarters company and the 46th CBRN Company will move to Ft. Bliss, Texas, and the 25th CBRN Company will move to Ft. Stewart, Ga., according to the news release.
Fort Bliss is the home of the Army's 1st Armored Division, also known as "Old Ironsides." Donald noted there are not any battalion headquarters units, related to CBRN or ordnance disposal, at Ft. Bliss.
"Stationing on a Forces Command installation enhances integration with supported maneuver forces, force projection platforms and training ranges," Donald wrote in an email. "It also fully enables implementation of the CBRN Force Design Update and ensures a better projection platform for our technical CBRNE Forces."
The 22nd Battalion is part of the Ft. Hood-based 48th CBRN Brigade, which falls under the APG-based 20th CBRNE Command.
The 20th CBRNE (Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear and Explosives) Command oversees CBRN and explosive ordnance disposal units across the country, units that work on offensive use of CBRN weapons and defending the U.S. from an attack with those kinds of weapons, according to the command's web page.
The command's headquarters unit, as well as the civilian CARA (CBRNE Analytical and Remediation Activity), will remain at the Edgewood Area and will move into facilities occupied by the battalion, Donald said.
The CARA provides logistical and training support to the command, operates mobile laboratories and handles chemical remediation projects, according to the Army's website.
About 300 soldiers assigned to the 20th Command will remain at APG and Edgewood, according to Donald.
About 22,000 soldiers and civilians work at APG and the Edgewood Area.