Photo By Douglas Stutz | Terry Lerma, Naval Hospital Bremerton Emergency Preparedness coordinator, shares with...... read more read more
BREMERTON, Wash. - When Terry Lerma was tabbed for the second consecutive year as 2014 Volunteer Officer of the Year with South Kitsap Fire and Rescue, he thought such recognition was over.
Turns out his community acknowledgement was just the start, and culminated with command appreciation following a short 48 hours later.
Lerma, Naval Hospital Bremerton's Emergency Preparedness Coordinator, was selected as the command's Senior Civilian of the Year for 2014.
"I was getting a physical and got the word from the DFA (Director for Administration) that our commanding officer wanted to see me. I wondered if I had done anything wrong. It was explained that there were questions on our upcoming Mass Fatality drill. So I went back to the office and went completely over what we had planned and then got the call to come and see the Skipper. But when I got in there, there was no discussion on the drill. The DFA wanted me to be surprised. I was. The CO welcomed and then congratulated me on being senior civilian of the year. It did take me completely by surprise," said Lerma, a retired hospital corpsmen senior chief who has held his current post at NHB for approximately eight years.
According to DFA, Cmdr. Jeffrey Klinger, Lerma's justification for the award is based on a number of contributing factors, such as job performance; on-the-job contributions; personal conduct; customer service. Lerma was also cited for his efforts in the surrounding community as a willing volunteer.
"Terry Lerma is highly deserving of this nomination for Senior Civilian of the Year for 2014, and he has my strongest personal recommendation for selection of this award," said Klinger, noting that 2014 was a banner year for the NHB's emergency management program and is a direct reflection of Lerma. "His personal initiative, drive, dedication, his "passion" to embrace the Emergency Management Office motto, 'Pareto ET Tueri (To Prepare and protect).'"
In regards to Lerma's job performance, he has been repeatedly cited by Navy Medicine leadership as having one of the top Medical Treatment Facility Emergency Management program throughout Navy Medicine.
No small feat in itself, he started building the foundation of NHB's program from little more than an office and an idea, bolstered by practical experience and awareness of what was needed to get the job done.
From the classroom to real-world training environments, the past year proved a busy one for Lerma. In January he coordinated Emergency Provider Response Course (EPRC) by the Defense Medical Readiness Training Institute for 24 clinicians in a one day training class that saved up to 14 hours of online training for each provider that allowed them to devote more time to patient care. The course was also brought back in September with Lerma stepping in as a co-facilitator and instructor.
Operation Fireball; a full scale, post-earthquake, mass casualty exercise where Lerma coordinated NRNW Regional Dispatch Center, Kitsap County Central Communications/911, Bremerton Fire Department, South Kitsap Fire and Rescue, Central Kitsap Fire and Rescue, and NRNW Fire and Emergency Services to all simultaneously respond to NHB and complete four full scale ladder truck "rescues" of patients from the upper floors of NHB without incident.
Lerma was the command coordinator for four separate Navy Medicine mandated, full scale inventories of Decontamination (DECON) teams and the needed equipment and pharmaceutical countermeasures (H199 assemblage) for NHB in April, Branch Health Clinic Everett in June, and with BHC Bangor and back to NHB in September. By utilizing creative logistical coordination, BHC Everett and BHC Bangor both achieved 100 percent complete inventories/ assemblages, and are the first two MTFs in BUMED with this distinct designation, with NHB having a 99.3 percent complete H199 assemblage.
Lerma also coordinated all four DECON First Receiver Operations Team (FROT) trainings, and two Advanced FROT training courses, each requiring full function testing of all the DECON Team equipment. Every equipment item was rated as "excellent" in materiel condition in spite of being over six year old systems. DECON LLC inspection and grading experts also cited NHB as having one of the top DECON Team material management, deployment and team training environments in all of Navy Medicine, specifically cite Lerma's personal initiative and dedication.
His contributions included having Navy Medicine refer to the NHB Pandemic Influenza response plan he formulated as one of the most in-depth, developed response plans, due to Lerma completely coordinating the editing and updating of NHB'S Pandemic Instruction with 18 informative annexes that now serves as a template for other Navy Medicine military treatment facilities.
At the request of the Washington State Search and Rescue (SAR) Volunteer Advisory Council, Mr. Lerma served as an Incident Command System (ICS) Instructor where he taught SAR ICS for multi-agency/multi-jurisdictional Search and Rescue incidents at the 2014 Washington State SAR Conference.
His customer service acumen as a consultant and subject matter expert continues for the 12 Naval MTFs in NAVMED West, and 13 Naval MTFs in NAVMED East.
During preparation stages for potential Ebola Virus Disease support, NHB received two official 'Requests for Support' from Harrison Medical Center and Madigan Army Medical Center. Due to Lerma's foresight and inter-operability planning, the command was able to provide 50 Powered Air Purifying Respirators and the support supplies of batteries, chargers, filters, consumable cuffs and comfort strip head bands to both.
In his off duty hours, Lerma serves his community as a volunteer firefighter and emergency medical technician (EMT) with South Kitsap Fire and Rescue (SKFR) as a lieutenant. His leadership and initiative were specifically cited by SKFR as he was selected in 2013 and again in 2014 as Volunteer Officer of the Year. In 2013, he was runner up for the Washington State Firefighter Association Volunteer Officer of the Year.
In addition to being a volunteer firefighter, Lerma responds as a Search and Rescue Canine (SAR K9) handler with All Breeds Canine Search and Rescue (ABC SAR), and an Operations Section Chief for Kitsap County Washington Explorer Search and Rescue (WESAR). When not training his SAR K9 Harley, he serves as a medical operations field instructor to hone the skills of SAR members on how to assess, treat, package, and transport a lost, injured subject out of a wilderness area.
He's also the ABC SAR K9 unit representative to the Kitsap WESAR Board of Governors, and is a K9 unit representative to the Washington State Search and Rescue Volunteer Advisory Council (SARVAC).
| Date Taken: | 03.09.2015 |
| Date Posted: | 03.11.2015 17:43 |
| Story ID: | 156687 |
| Location: | BREMERTON, WASHINGTON, US |
| Web Views: | 75 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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