The possibility of a human-borne with bioagent (HBBA) terrorist at foreign FOB ECPs: the perceptions of U.S. military or security personnel, a preliminary report

BACKGROUND: The global war on terrorism has prompted an increase in the deployment of security personnel from multi-national forces on foreign lands, especially in places where known terrorist groups are based. The aim of this study was to obtain U.S. military and security personnel’s perceptions of the possibility of encountering a human-borne with bioagent (HBBA) terrorist at an entry control point (ECP). METHODS: This study was a mixed-method, cross-sectional, survey-based, time-limited study. A validated, five-option Likert scale questionnaire with Cronbach’s alphas of 0.82 and 0.894 for Constructs 1 and 2 was distributed to over 113 respondents with combat experience. RESULTS: The results indicated that 92.3 % of the respondents thought it was possible for a terrorist to employ a biological agent to cause terror; 61.5 % claimed it was either possible or very possible, and 26.9 % claimed it was somewhat possible for a terrorist carrying a biological agent to successfully breach a combat Forward Operating Bases (FOB) ECP undetected. 26.9 % of the respondents agreed that “ECP soldiers are knowledgeable about bioagents (BA)”, only 15.4 % responded that ECP soldiers have effective devices for detecting a BA on a terrorist at an ECP. CONCLUSION: Despite some limitations, this pre-study tends to indicate that while many U.S. military or security personnel acknowledge the possibility of an HBBA terrorist breach and the vulnerability of U.S. combat post ECPs to a BA breach, the soldiers at the ECPs lack adequate knowledge or devices to effectively detect a BA on a terrorist at an ECP.