Photo By Sgt. 1st Class Taisha Lockhart | U.S. Army Pfc. Jose Roman, a mortuary affairs specialist assigned to the 311th...... read more read more
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MUSCATATUCK URBAN TRAINING CENTER, Ind., – Mortuary affairs soldiers from 311th Quartermaster Company, 1st Mission Support Command, prepare and produce precise and detailed patient casualty scenarios with medical knowledge and trained artistic abilities Aug. 1, 2013 during Vibrant Response 13-2. VR13-2 is a major field training exercise conducted by U.S. Northern Command and led by U.S. Army North (Fifth Army). The exercise runs through Aug. 17 and takes place at various venues around southern and central Indiana. The 311th is an Army Reserve unit from Aguadilla, Puerto Rico.
Vibrant Response is a annual major field training exercise that allows soldiers, Marines, airman and civilians from the military and other federal and state agencies throughout the country to participate in and assess their skills and ability to respond to a Chemical, Biological, Radiological or Nuclear incident in the homeland.
Although mortuary affairs specialist duty normally applies to the dignified preparation and care of deceased people, during VR13-2 their job is to become sci-fi movie like make-up artists and make mannequins and human role players look injured to add realism to the scenario they are assigned to. This is called “moulage.”
“Everything we learn about moulage, we learn here in this training environment,” said Pfc. Jose Roman, mortuary affairs specialist, 311th Quartermaster Company. “We use three different colors of gel; clear, tan and red, which is also non-toxic to make moulage. The ‘bones’ are made out of clay and we also use make-up to help create the injury. It’s our job to make the manikins look as professional and as realistic as possible because you never know what you can face in a real emergency,” said Roman.
Mannequins are used during the scenario when it is not safe to use a person and to give the units more “victims”. When an incident happens, the first people on the ground are “first responders”.
First responders are responsible for identifying injuries based on the stage the wound appears to be in. Displaying different types of burns, shrapnel injuries, and broken bones are just a few injuries that can be made from the moulage used on the life size manikins.
“Let us say there’s a radiation accident, patients that are close to the blast area might be blind, hard of hearing, have radiation burns, thermal burns, shrapnel injuries,” said Skip Deon, a retired nuclear medical science officer. “You have to look at entire accident and consider the fact that there are going to be people looking for insulin because they are diabetic, people with nitroglycerin because they have heart problems. There will be babies, children, women who are pregnant. You are going to have out breaks of communal diseases like whooping cough, measles and other diseases.”
Simulating real life disasters helps keep first responders trained and ready to respond to many different situations our population may face.
Deon went on to explain they have to make the injury look like it’s supposed to look in order for the people in the exercise to get it right.
“You don’t treat all injuries the same, so if we don’t do it right, then the people out in the field won’t do it right and they could kill people,” he said. “This is why our job is so important.”
| Date Taken: | 08.01.2013 |
| Date Posted: | 08.04.2013 11:05 |
| Story ID: | 111320 |
| Location: | MUSCATATUCK URBAN TRAINING CENTER, IN, US |
| Web Views: | 173 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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