Courtesy Photo | Soldiers with Joint Task Force Civil Support conduct urban search and rescue training...... read more read more
FORT HOOD, Texas – Urban search and rescue platoons from Joint Task Force Civil Support converged on the training grounds of Fort Hood, Texas Aug. 24 to 28 to practice their life-saving mission in a variety of disaster response situations.
The training, part of the joint task force’s Exercise Sudden Response 16, focused on saving lives in the aftermath of a nuclear blast scenario.
“This training exercise (revolves around a simulated) domestic terror attack hitting Houston,” said 1st Lt. Patrick Smith, platoon leader for an urban search and rescue platoon, under 554th Engineer Company, from Ft. Stewart, Georgia. “We are conducting urban search and rescue operations at this tunnel site.”
The tunnel site represented a contaminated collapsed parking structure, so concrete debris and destroyed vehicles were set up around the site, adding to the realism – and the challenges – for these search and rescue platoons.
“There were some people who were trapped in a parking garage,” Smith explained. “We are preparing the Soldiers to know what to expect when a parking garage collapses and how they can effectively get victims out of a garage and increase the structural stability of the area since a (terror attack) can do major structural damage to the place.”
The Soldiers had to approach the site cautiously while wearing a full protective suit.
“Wearing the suit becomes uncomfortable at times, but that’s part of our job,” said Sgt. Scott Mankewitz, 181st Hazard Response Company, 2nd Chemical Battalion, from Ft. Hood. “We have to wear it (for our safety), and once you get used to it and you have been doing this mission for a while it’s just the norm.”
Once the tunnel site had been secured, simulated victims were rescued and decontaminated for further medical treatment.
“It’s a good feeling to know we are training to help Americans and that there is a purpose behind it,” Mankewitz said. “I hope we become more proficient in our mission, if we are called to do this we’ll be ready to go.”
Additional search and rescue training took place elsewhere on Ft. Hood during the week, along with decontamination training, medical and logistic support, and various other tasks essential to disaster response.
| Date Taken: | 08.27.2016 |
| Date Posted: | 08.31.2016 17:25 |
| Story ID: | 208635 |
| Location: | FORT HOOD, TX, US |
| Hometown: | FORT STEWART, GA, US |
| Web Views: | 60 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Search and rescue platoons train to pull survivors into the light, by SGT Nelson Robles, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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