20th Fighter Wing Public Affairs

Hometown: Shaw AFB, SC, US

Allies train in Qatar to thwart terrorism

04.29.2013 | DOHA, QA
Story by Staff Sgt. Kenneth Holston

DOHA, Qatar - Open the newspaper or turn on the television and there's bound to be a story about it – terrorism and war.

People in just about every nation rely on their armed forces, police and other agencies to keep them safe from such harm.

Exercise Eagle Resolve 2013 is one way the Gulf Cooperation Council nations, the U.S. and other allies have practiced to keep citizens in the gulf region safe from terrorist threats.

Held this year in Qatar, Eagle Resolve is an annual multi-national exercise designed to support cooperative defense. It provides multilateral forces with the opportunity to increase technical proficiency, expand levels of cooperation, enhance maritime capabilities, and promote interoperability, all to enhance regional security and stability.

Exercises like this are created and set up to give the good guys an upper hand on the enemy by allowing for joint participation in several different complex scenarios, explained Maj. Gen. Robert Catalanotti, director of both Exercise Eagle Resolve 2013 and U.S. Central Command’s exercise and training directorate.

During Eagle Resolve 2013, one of the more extensive and challenging scenarios took place in the center of a popular residential and shopping area in Qatar called The Pearl.

Here, exercise planners coordinated a simulated terrorist attack by using smoke bombs and fake bomb grenades that produced extremely loud sounds to simulate a missile having hit a heavily-populated area resulting in a chemical and biological outbreak as well as mass casualties.

About 700 people, including about 200 role players who acted as victims, participated in this particular scenario at The Pearl.

As the exercise scenario kicked off, explosions occurred and smoke bellowed in between two high-rise apartment buildings. Once the smoke finally cleared, the site that had been blanketed by the red and white haze was a horrific one.

Victims cried out in pain as blood oozed from their wounds while others lay lifeless in the simulated post-attack environment.

By now Qatar and United Arab Emirates armed forces members sprang into action, donning decontamination suits and gas masks as they hurried to the site of the explosion.

“It was very important for our chemical-detection units to react quickly to determine what the chemical levels were at the blast site so we could begin helping treat the wounded there,” said. Qatar armed forces Maj. Samy Abdul Wahab, medical services doctor. “As soon as they detected the chemical and found out it was mustard gas we were able to set up triage and begin helping the victims.”

While Qatari forces decontaminated the blast site, UAE armed forces troops began evacuating and transporting victims to the decontamination and triage site for medical attention.

The two units worked in unison to ensure all aspects of the process were executed correctly.

“I observed the exercise from start to finish and it was seamless; from the attack to the decontamination, triage, and medical center,” said U.S. Marine Corps Gunnery Sgt. Jamil Dudley, U.S. Marine Forces Central Command chemical, biological, radiological nuclear warfare chief.

“The triage tents were actually colored coded so they gave them a visual when it came to the level of injury they were taken care of,” continued the Marine. “For example, they were able to take a patient who was wounded but not in critical condition and say ‘Ok, to be treated you need to go to the red tent.’ And in a situation of mass confusion, a system like that is very helpful and smart.”

After evacuating each of the victims and ensuring they were decontaminated, doctors and nurses quickly went to work treating them and making judgment calls on who needed to be medically evacuated to the main hospital.

Qatar armed forces helicopters swooped in to transport the critically wounded. Teamwork was a must to all aspects of the scenario, especially logistics.

“It’s extremely important to work with partner nations during exercises like these so we can share our experiences with each other and learn before, during, and after the exercise,” said Abdul Wahab.

When the exercise concluded, team leaders and exercise observers seemed to be happy with the performance of those reacting to the scenario and discussed how real a threat such as the one they had reacted to could be.

“Depending on where the incident took place, U.S. and allied force would have to work together to react to such a situation,” said Dudley. “This exercise prepares all of us for that.”

While many training scenarios take place throughout the course of the Eagle Resolve exercise, some feel this particular one was the most important.

“This is one of the most important exercise scenarios to take place during Eagle Resolve,” said Abdul Wahab. “This type of threat is real. The only way to be prepared for it is to train.”

Though newspapers and television broadcast deliver to the public stories about terrorist attacks and war, it can be comforting to know the armed forces of many nations are closely training and preparing to counter such deadly measures.