Milwaukee, Wis. – Of the more than 445 thousand people who thronged Summerfest this year at Milwaukee’s lakefront, a handful were checking out more than the music.
Members of the Wisconsin National Guard’s 54th Civil Support Team (CST) were discreetly monitoring the music festival for potential threats.
“We primarily provide environmental monitoring unless something suspicious is found,” said Lt. Col. Matthew Kelly, commander of the 22-member full-time team of specialists. Then we can go into actual characterization and identification of the threat and figure out what we’re actually going to do next. We’ll do radiation monitoring and air monitoring for toxic chemicals, which is mainly what we do at those.
The 54th CST — a Madison, Wisconsin-based full-time team of Soldiers and Airmen trained and equipped to respond to emergencies or terrorist events involving weapons of mass destruction, toxic industrial chemicals, or natural disasters — can do passive and active monitoring, based on the venue and what they have been requested to provide.
