Photo By Master Sgt. Lynette Hoke | United States Air Force Senior Airmen Zachary Oeser and Staff Sgt. Akellius Lorden,...... read more read more
Like an actor preparing for a play, many Soldiers, Airmen and civilians were practiced and prepped with make-up, given their motivation and direction for the big opening scene.
More than thirty people participated in a disaster response during a large mass casualty exercise on Joint Base Balad, Iraq, March 28.
"MASCAL exercises are designed to test the Emergency Response System," said Sgt. 1st Class Michael W. Lindsey, Task Force 34, 2-149th General Aviation Support Battalion, MASCAL non-commissioned officer in charge. "During a deployment there are high probabilities of a real world MASCAL. If you practice them it helps you be better prepared for when the real one happens."
There were a few MASCAL training exercises prior to this, but none that included the large number of casualties and participation from multiple components from around the base.
"We had conducted three other internal MASCAL exercises before doing this one," said 1st Lt. Bryanna Thomes of Task Force 34, Troops Medical Clinic, officer in charge. "This exercise we had KBR and the JBB Fire Department involved, because in the event of a MASCAL, all of these components would have to work together.
"Indirect fires can be a daily occurrence and is a threat throughout the base," she said. "The emphasis during these exercises was on immediate care of the wounded and how we communicate using normal radio procedures."
As an actor needs to find realism in the scene they are set in and the participants set up the MASCAL 'scene' to be as lifelike as possible.
"This exercise was not only a culmination of the prior three exercises but added an extra element with the 834th Post Attack Reconnaissance Team, explosive ordinance disposal, and the fire and rescue team to respond as incident command, and the response of medical units from the Aviation Clinic, the Phipps Clinic, and KBR Medical to take care of the injured," said Capt. Bruce Kelii, Task Force 34, 834th Aviation Support Battalion, medical operations officer. "This level of coordination takes a lot of planning and effort from all participants to teach each partner what their specific role will be."
"If explained in detail and all partners understand the magnitude of the coordinated effort, each partner will leave not only with a sense of accomplishment, but a concept of operation that show we as a whole can work as a multi-faceted organized collection of responders to save lives," said Capt. Kelii, a native of Bloomington, Minn.
"It helps the Emergency Medical Teams, Combat Life Savers, Triage Team, Evacuation Team, Sweep Team and the Fire Suppression Team better their skills," Sgt. 1st Class Lindsey said. "When in a real world MASCAL the pressure is very intense and every second counts. If you practice these drills, it will become second nature."
Also, like an actor preparing for their big part, they have to dress and look the part of the character they are playing. During the MASCAL training exercise the team found ways to resource make-up and other materials to add to the liveliness of the scene.
"I like doing moulage, I learned how to do it many years ago," explained Sgt. 1st Class Lindsey, a native of Cleburne, TX. "If it looks real it gets you in the mind set to do the job at hand, the more real it looks the more people will treat it like it is real and that will give the personnel better training."
"The moulage was purchased and brought in by Sgt. 1st Class Lindsey and he brought in mock shrapnel and wounds and spent hours working with Lt. Col. Gary McKay, Headquarters, Headquarters Company, 34th Combat Aviation Brigade, and others creating these patients," explained 1st Lt. Thomes, a native of Litchfield, Minn.
"The moulage included pipes, shrapnel, blasts to eyes, lacerations, ramen noodles and other food to create body parts; a lot of red food coloring and corn syrup was used to create the blood," said 1st Lt. Thomes, who is on her first deployment to Iraq. "We had a designated number of the different types of patients in order to test our patient assessment and triage skills ... without the moulage and lifelike injuries, it would be hard to test the skills of the emergency responders as they would not know what they would be treating."
As the curtain dropped and exercise ended, the spectators and observers and controls gave the players and participants a round of applause.
"I think this event was a success," said 1st Lt. Thomes. "It wasn't a test, but an exercise to evaluate and observe what we can improve on and learn from these situations. We have made an enormous amount of progress since our first exercise in October. All of the players in the event from medics to casualties enjoyed being a part of the exercise."
"I thought it went well, all the different teams worked together well without having much prior knowledge of each other," said Sgt. Kimberly Doan, 834th Aviation Support Battalion Headquarters, who played a casualty with multiple minimal injuries. "As long as it helps the medics and responders train I would definitely do it again."
As all the teams gathered and discussed the event in retrospect, the event proved to be an invaluable training exercise to help all players and participants involved in the 'show.'
"When the smoke cleared and with all of the chaos, we felt that it was a huge success in understanding the importance of all mutual partners coordinating this effort together," said Capt. Kelii. "This exercise provided measurable data for improving our teams to handle future events."
| Date Taken: | 03.28.2009 |
| Date Posted: | 04.03.2009 12:27 |
| Story ID: | 31976 |
| Location: | IQ |
| Web Views: | 344 |
| Downloads: | 266 |
This work, Medics master mass casualty preparedness, by MSgt Lynette Hoke, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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