I'm an NCO, but Imma caveat off what X said (hehehe) and talk a bit about the greater realm of CBRN most AD types don't experience: DSCA and technical reachback.

Buckle up, kids, this is gonna be a long thread. But I have pictures!
1/ https://twitter.com/ChemicalFire/status/1318716602448314371

DSCA, or Defense Support of Civil Authorities, is a behemoth of a mission, encompassing all DoD support to local, state, and fedeal government agencies (police, fire, environmental, etc) for incident response large and small.

Look, the Army even wrote it into doctrine! 2/

It can range from simple logistical support, like providing food, water, shelter, supplies to displaced civilians, to rescue operations, to CBRN-specific (I'll discuss that in detail next), or even the massive endeavour that has been the COVID-19 response. 3/

For DSCA CBRN response, there's the CRE, or CBRNE Response Enterprise, which is designed and organized to be flexible and scalable based on the level of support/response required. 4/

A big piece of the CRE is under the National Guard - the C2 element is the HRF (Homeland Response Force), which is effectively a Brigade HQ/staff, and they can coordinate deployments for multiple downtrace CRE units. Mostly part timers, some AGR/ADOS. 1 HRF per FEMA region. 5/

Then there's CERFPs, also NG, which are effectively a battalion element comprised of a C2 cell, a CBRN company (Army, for MASCAL decon), an Engineer company (Army, US&R, and can operate in level C), an MP company (Army, I think they now fall directly under the HRF, not sure), 6/

..a medical triage unit (Air National Guard), and a Fatality Search and Recovery Team (FSRT, also ANG). They are designed to support larger incidents, but several can be called up at the same time. There are 1 or 2 per FEMA region, depending on population. 7/

The most QRF/strike force-like element of the CRE are the CSTs (Civil Support Teams). Still Guard, but all active duty (title 32), they are on a 24/7 recall status to respond to WMD/CBRN incidents within their region. 57 teams - at least 1 per state/US territory. 8/

CSTs have a survey/recon team (7 CBRN NCOs, 1 ChemO, Medical (PA, Med Ops, and medic), Science (Nuclear Medical Science Officer), Ops (1 OPSO, 1 OPS NCO, 1 training NCO), Log/Admin (1 supply NCO and 1 HR NCO), Commo (2 Commo NCOs), and Command (1 O5 CO, 1 O4 XO, 1 1SG). 9/

They can respond to an incident with a complete unknown hazard, sample it (survey), identify it (NMSO in the mobile lab), and provide assistance/guidance to the incident commander (comms, tech decon, and presumptive analysis of the hazard). 10/

On the federal/title 10side, you have the DCRF (Defense CBRN Response Force, currently Joint Task Force - Civil Support out of Ft. Eustis) and USMC's CBIRF (Chemical Biological Incident Response Force). They both have very different mission sets, but are part of the CRE. 11/

Reachback organizations are generally places with very high level technical expertise. Units like mine in the USAR (a WMD Coordination Team), the CSTs, etc will provide reachback, or coordinate with outside agencies to help us noodle problems that need 40lb brains to solve. 12/

Reachback internal, it can be at Department of Energy, DTRA, or any of the national labs (Lawrence-Livermore, Los Alamos, etc), just to name a few. They can provide advanced modeling, tease out details from data, or other support. 13/

Reachback is the brains, but someone has to break the technical-ese into language a Commander can use to decide action in the field - whether for domestic response or in combat overseas. CBRN officers are usually the ones who do that, especially at BDE staffs and higher. 14/

For the more science/research-minded, there's also the various Army research labs (Edgewood, Dugway, USAMRIID, to name a few) who all conduct testing and research to better prepare the Army and DoD at large to deal with CBRN. 15/

The opportunities in CBRN are myriad, regardless if you're active, guard, or reserve, and they all play to different strengths. I for one am sure I would die inside if I was in one of @ChemicalFire's units (sorry Sir ), but not everyone is a yuge technical/lab nerd like me./end