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The Army Reserve Soldiers of the 375th Chemical Company have an important responsibility: monitor battlefields and detect chemical or biological threats. During this Field Training Exercise (FTX), every individual builds on his or her previous experience by learning how to operate new field equipment, the Biological Integrated Detection System (BIDS).
All of the 375th Chemical Company's training comes down to this—the FTX. See Private First Class Bradley Stone and his fellow Army Reserve Soldiers apply everything they've learned to a real-world situation.
The Soldiers of the 375th Chemical Company learn to operate new equipment and, in the process, put their other Soldiering skills to the test. Watch Specialist Chris Oberloh and her team set up the BIDS equipment and perform under stress.
These Army Reserve Soldiers come away from the FTX with more than just new equipment skills; they've earned the pride that comes from a job well done. Each Soldier played a major role in the team's success.
 Real World Training Biological Detection FTX   
| PFC Bradley Stone:
My name is PFC Bradley Stone. I am from St. Peters, Missouri, and I am a 54-Bravo which is a Chemical Specialist. A field training exercise, more commonly known to us as an FTX, is an opportunity to go out to the field and to take all the training that you've received and put it into a real-world situation. | 
| We're being evaluated on everything that we have learned up to this point in this FTX. So this is a pretty important part of the puzzle for us. Everything that we've done, learned, and shared as a team comes down to this FTX. Being a 54-Bravo, chemical specialist, we are now attending a Lima Four attachment, which is a BIDs specialist, which is a Biological Integrated Detection System. | 
| Our job is to be sure that if there are any biological agents used, we can help protect our troops. We have a front line of biological defenses. What we do here is extremely high-tech. I mean, it is laboratory work and there's a lot of computer work, but at the same time, a lot of the technology that the Army uses is very user-friendly. | 
| You look forward to the field training exercises because you know it's going to be something different, something exciting, and you swap stories with people that do the same thing you do and have some of the same interests that you do. | 
| Field exercise is a great time to get closer to your fellow soldiers, bond with them, create some new relationships. Military—U.S. Army Reserve friendships—usually are some of the best ones and longest-lasting you'll ever make. From here, it is destination unknown.
We keep training and I think everyone out here is pretty confident that we're ready to go take on whatever may present itself to us next. |
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