Crucial military unit staying at Fort Hamilton
The U.S. government will not be moving the National Guard Weapons of Mass Destruction Civic Support Team (WMD-CST) from Fort Hamilton any time soon.
The day after five members of the team provided critical support in the wake of the Boston Marathon bombings, Congressmember Michael Grimm announced that Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel said he would not cut the team which had been threatened because of fiscal constraints during testimony given to the House Appropriations Defense Subcommittee on April 16.
The team which specializes in response to weapons of mass destruction and which interfaces with local emergency responders to assess events and develop a plan of action arrived at Fort Hamilton with great fanfare in 2010. Each state has at least one WMD-CST; New York is one of three states that have two, but there has been an ongoing fight to preserve the second teams in New York and Florida, which the Department of Defense had proposed eliminating to save money.