by Senior Airman Melissa Harvey
301st Fighter Wing Public Affairs
6/23/2013 - NAVAL AIR STATION FORT WORTH JOINT RESERVE BASE, Texas -- Air
Force Reserve, Air National Guard, Navy and Civil Air Patrol personnel
conducted a joint mass casualty exercise here June 23.
"The goal is to facilitate learning in a joint effort as well as
individual training requirements so that we could actually answer and
work a mass casualty," said Maj. Carol Jones, 301st Medical Squadron
pharmacist.
The exercise was held on the base softball field where medical and
moulage tents, a pharmacy, along with other needed supplies, such as a
water buffalo, were set up surrounding an open area where the action
took place.
For the exercise, events leading up to the casualties included careless social networking posts.
"A unit was to report for drug urine testing, so people got on their
Facebook and Twitter accounts and reported it," Jones said. "A terrorist
pulled up to the front of the command post with a truck loaded with a
fertilizer bomb and it exploded. They have casualties that have been
exposed to fertilizer, nitrogen and also now we have been told there is
an anthrax exposure as well."
Indicative of how quickly a situation can occur, conditions on the "playing field" changed rapidly.
One moment, the field was busy with the sound of preparations and the
next, moulage participant's screams and cries for help filled the air.
They were covered with simulated blood and visible injuries such as
cuts, eye damage, and one person in particular had a stick protruding
from his midsection.
Most of the injured were played by civil air patrol cadets who have a
mission to assist the Air Force in any way that they can, according to
2nd Lt. Dwight Tutton, a senior member of the Civil Air Patrol Composite
Squadron 413 from Denton, Texas.
"It's awesome, it's really cool. I'm glad the cadets are getting to do
something like this. Some of them have done it before and for some of
them it's their first time," he said.
When the injured came onto the field, they were met with medics coming
to their aid. Each injured person held a card that gave specific
symptoms they were experiencing. This aided the medical personnel in
their assessment of the injured and to help them decide what their next
step was going to be.
Medics had to either walk with or get litters to assist the injured to
the appropriate medical tent and then take the proper steps to treat
them.
For Capt. Rose Adams, a clinical nurse with the 136th Medical Group the
takeaway from this exercise is experience. "Training for most of the
nurses and medical technicians because some of them don't have outside
experience,'' she said. "So, it's good to get them this medical
experience in what it could be like to actually be out in the field
taking care of a mass amount of patients at one time."
This training gives medical personnel the opportunity to act under pressure in a learning environment, rather than in real life.
"Overall it is a good exercise," said Navy Hospitalman Melody Zemanek,
who is stationed at the base medical clinic. "Definitely take the time
to make sure you do things right. That one little extra second to think
will help out a lot."
Not everything was simulated during the exercise.
"What's really nice for the 301st Medical Squadron is that we have
actually had hands-on," said Jones. "We've been able to open up the
medical packages and actually watch central lines being put in,
ventilators being set up, we all have live oxygen. So we have the
ability to see a lot of that stuff hands-on experience, not just
simulated.
"It's just been great; it's been a good joint effort, she said. "I think
both teams have really merged well together. Communication is huge and I
think it's worked really great."
Monday, June 24, 2013
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