By Spc. Monte Swift
203rd Public Affairs Detachment
FORT HUNTER LIGGETT, Calif. – Imagine traveling to your civilian job. After pulling into the parking garage, you walk to the door. Suddenly, a flood of friends and coworkers burst out of the building coughing and crying for help.
Confused, you step back, staring, until it hits you. Your eyes and skin burn, and every breath feels like fire as a fog drifts out of the door. You can only manage one thought. Make it stop.
Civilians facing chemical weapons such as mustard or chlorine gas can receive help from Soldiers like those of the 357th Chemical Company from Pennsauken, N.J. The unit, which is taking part in Pacific Warrior here, held a live event Wednesday using Mass Civilian Decontamination centers.
"This is a superb training activity for Soldiers and everyone who is involved," said Maj. Gen. James W. Rafferty, commanding general of the 81st Regional Readiness Command, who was on hand to witness the exercise. "I am seeing great things from these Soldiers and the best part is everyone is enjoying the training."
The Mass Decontamination Center includes three tents that can be set up anywhere in less than 15 minutes and are designed to process large numbers of people at a time, members of the 357th Chemical Company said. In a real situation, the center would be located near a hospital so decontaminated casualties could seek further treatment.
An assembly line process is used to move casualties through the cleaning process. In the first tent, the casualty roleplayers were separated by those who could and couldn't walk. Then they removed contaminated clothing and passed into the Soldiers in protective suits thoroughly and carefully cleaned the casualty with a mixture of soap, water and mild bleach.
From there, they were checked by a chemical agent monitor to determine if another pass through the shower tents is needed. In the final tent they are dressed in a protective suit and sent for medical treatment.
Sgt. 1st Class Claudia Polite said the unit performs these drills monthly, adding that preventing the further spread of contamination is very important. During the event, some casualties became hostile and had to be restrained to prevent them from leaving the contamination zone.
"I would never let my Soldiers to be injured by someone who is brought into the MCD," said Staff Sgt. was being treated quickly enough.
Col. Dawn A. Vuicich, medical operations officer for the 7303rd Medical Training Support Battalion from Fort Gordon, Ga., said the Soldiers adapted very well, improving each time they stopped.
The exercise was designed to be 80 percent tactical and 20 percent medical, she said.
Master Sgt. Robert Dawley, 479th Engineer Battalion from Watertown, N.Y., said they faced some unplanned, real-life obstacles to their mission.
"As we pulled out, the first site was blocked by a downed tree, but the (military police) found an alternate route," said Dawley, noting that the Soldiers pressed on despite the hardships.
"As soon as we set up on the second site it just clicked. All the units performed outstandingly."
Patrice Brown, the MCD team leader. "If they proceed to be violent we will move on to help other casualties."
Soldiers in the training switched jobs during the exercise so everyone got a chance to learn all areas of the MCD. The casualties who could not walk were taken through on a stretcher and carefully rolled over to be decontaminated.
"If you were to get attacked, this would be the unit to go to," said Spc. Anthony I. Martinez of the 900th Quartermaster Company from El Paso, Texas, who played a casualty for the training. "This unit is high speed."
Wearing the chemical suit and mask was very taxing on the Soldiers in the hot weather, said Brown. A separate tent was set up so they could rotate out and cool off.
"The overall mission went very, very well," she said. "We had some trouble with the tents at first, but after we got it straightened out everyone knew what to do and worked as team."
| Date Taken: | 06.20.2008 |
| Date Posted: | 06.20.2008 18:53 |
| Story ID: | 20698 |
| Location: | US |
| Web Views: | 516 |
| Downloads: | 476 |
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