Unique unit understands medical urgency

Photo By Alexandria Brimage-Gray | U.S. Army Sgt. Brandon Bates,left, military police officer, 1139th Military Police Company, Missouri Army National Guard, and Sgt. Jared Sweet, Infantryman, Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 76th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, Indiana Army National Guard, carry a casualty from a UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter while serving as emergency medical technicians for a simulated air medevac scenario during exercise Vibrant Response 13-2 at Camp Atterbury, Ind., Aug. 3, 2013. Vibrant Response is a U.S. Northern Command-sponsored field training exercise for chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear and high-yield explosive consequence management forces designed to improve their ability to respond to catastrophic incidents. (U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Alexandria Brimage-Gray/Released)  

CAMP ATTERBURY, IN, UNITED STATES

08.05.2013

Story by Staff Sgt. Alexandria Brimage-Gray 

27th Public Affairs Detachment

CAMP ATTERBURY, Ind. – Soldiers from the Indiana and Missouri National Guard joined forces August 1, to open the Camp Atterbury Displaced Civilian Relief Center, during the U. S. Army North (Fifth Army) led Vibrant Response 13-2 training exercise at Camp Atterbury, Ind.

According to 1st Lt. Frank Smody, DCRC officer-in-charge, this is the first year the DCRC has been part of the Vibrant Response exercise. Smody is a military police officer with the 205th Military Police Battalion, Missouri National Guard, Kennett, Mo.

The DCRC is responsible for providing medical support to the Vibrant Response exercise participants, and they also help provide realistic training for the aerial medical evacuation teams participating in the exercise.

“The role of the DCRC is to serve as a casualty collection point for the Vibrant Response exercise,” said Smody. “Patients will be brought here by ambulance after being transferred from the Black Hawk medical evacuation helicopter,” he said. “When the patients arrive they’ll be triaged, provided food and water and sent to a higher echelon hospital if their condition deems necessary.”

The facility is able to comfortably accommodate about 30 to 40 non-critical patients.

To ensure patients get to the facility in a safe and timely manner the facility is staffed with two emergency medical technicians who transport patients from the airfield to the DCRC.

“Right now, the round trip for the ambulance to get to the airfield and back to the DCRC is about 10 minutes with about three or four patients,” said Smody.

Although the facility appears small from the outside, the inside of the facility is large enough to house and accommodate the medical needs of the community.

“We have some treatment rooms where we can treat some minor things like abrasions and lacerations depending on how bad they are,” said Sgt. Emily Clarkson, healthcare specialist, 113th Brigade Support Battalion, Indiana National Guard, Noblesville, Ind. “We can treat some things to get the patient stable and get them in to a treatment room. We also have an operating room so if there were a doctor or surgeon here they would be able to use that.”

As part of the exercise, the DCRC also provides an array of amenities to assist “displaced citizens” in their time of need. There are five treatment rooms, a patient in and out processing desk, an operating room, a morgue, and a patient identification log where the role players can get information about their “displaced” family members.

The Camp Atterbury DCRC also provides the moulage services to display realistic wounds for the mannequins participating in the exercise.

• Date Taken: 08.05.2013
• Date Posted: 08.05.2013 15:27
• Story ID: 111369
• Location: CAMP ATTERBURY, IN, US