47th CSH conducts base-wide exercise

Photo By Spc. Andrew Slovensky | Soldiers with the 47th Combat Support Hospital move a soldier, role-playing a casualty, onto a litter during a mass casualty exercise on Contingency Operating Base Adder, Sept. 5.  

CONTINGENCY OPERATING BASE ADDER, IRAQ

09.05.2011

Story by Pvt. Andrew Slovensky 

362nd Mobile Public Affairs Detachment

CONTINGENCY OPERATING BASE ADDER, Iraq – Soldiers of the 47th Combat Support Hospital conducted a base-wide mass casualty exercise on Contingency Operating Base Adder, Sept. 5.

Service members from the 407th Air Expeditionary Group, 219th Battlefield Surveillance Battalion, and the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, role-played the part of casualties, who donned false appendages, were covered in fake blood, and were painted in moulage, make-up used to imitate bruising and injuries.

“The purpose of the exercise was to make sure we function as a team during times of increased stress and decreased resources,” said Maj. James Watts, chief of medicine for the 47th CSH.

The event started with a broadcast from the Base Defense Operations Center, announcing the exercise and sounding a mock alarm. Medics of the 47th CSH used a variety of vehicles available to retrieve casualties from casualty collection points around the base.

Doctors and medics triaged arriving casualties, 26 in total, and delivered them to the hospital’s operating and emergency rooms for treatment.

Despite the heat, soldiers volunteered to be additional manpower for the exercise, carrying the mock casualties on litters from the vehicles and to the hospital.

The exercise, the second base-wide MASCAL training event in seven months, required coordination from COB Adder’s Garrison Command and BDOC, said Capt. Gregory McCrum, Company A commander, 47th CSH.

The exercise tested tactics, techniques, and procedures used to react to possible mass casualty events, like those resulting from indirect fire, said McCrum.

“We go through an exercise to make sure the TTPs are still applicable to this environment,” he said.

“It keeps the COB up to date on MASCAL procedures,” said Staff Sgt. Kevin Olney, chief ward master for the 47th CSH. “It’s something we do on a continual basis, making sure we’re ramped up and ready to go.”

• Date Taken: 09.05.2011
• Date Posted: 09.12.2011 02:49
• Story ID: 76857
• Location: CONTINGENCY OPERATING BASE ADDER, IQ