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DoD: No ‘appalling’ readiness gap

The Defense Department on Friday rejected the conclusion in a congressionally chartered commission’s report that there is an “appalling gap” in the nation’s ability to respond to nuclear, chemical or biological attack.

“I think the choice of that word was unfortunate and inaccurate,” said Paul McHale, assistant secretary of defense for homeland defense, during a hastily called news conference the day after the Jan. 31 release of the final report by the Commission on the National Guard and Reserves — and several news stories that highlighted the charge.

“We have forces that would be part of a catastrophic response that are superbly trained,” McHale said, citing the Marine Corps’ Chemical-Biological Incident Response Force, and the National Guard’s 53 certified Civil Support Teams and 17 Emergency Response Force Packages.

McHale noted that the Defense Department is at the final stage of defining and identifying resources needed for 15,000-member Chemical, Biological and Nuclear Consequence Management Response Forces that will be trained and equipped to respond to a domestic attack using weapons of mass destruction. McHale did not say how many of these teams would be formed.

But McHale admitted that the Defense Department does not yet have plans to deal with each of 15 national planning scenarios developed by the Department of Homeland Security. Those will be in place “one year from now,” he said.

At the same time, McHale said, “No level of preparation will ever be enough. These are challenges of the first magnitude. We can never be adequately prepared, because to be adequately prepared implies a sense of complacency. And we will not be complacent.”